THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

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,^.     /A  .    f  CO/WvA  c^ 


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IMMORTALITY 


MACMILLAN  AND  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON    •    BOMBAY    •    CALCUTTA    •    MADRAS 
MELBOURNE 

THE    MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  •  BOSTON  .  CHICAGO 
DALLAS    •    SAN  FRANCISCO 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA.  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


IMMORTALITY 

AN  ESSAY   IN   DISCOVERY 

CO-ORDINATING 

SCIENTIFIC,   PSYCHICAL,  AND    BIBLICAL 

RESEARCH 


BURNETT  H.  STREETER 

A.  CLUTTON-BROCK    C.W.EMMET    J.  A.  HADFIELD 

THE  AUTHOR  OF  'PRO  CHRISTO  ET  ECCLESIA' 


And  though  thy  soul  sail  leagues  and  leagues  beyond- 
Still,  leagues  beyond  those  leagues,  there  is  more  sea. 


MACMILLAN  AND  CO.,  LIMITED 

ST.  MARTIN'S  STREET,  LONDON 

1917 


COPYRIGHT 


133 


CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION 

I.  PRESUPPOSITIONS  AND  PRE- 

JUDGMENTS 

PAGE 

By  A.  Clutton-Brock,  Author  of  '  Thoughts  on  the 
War;  '  The  Ultimate  Belle/;'  '  JFilliam  Morris  : 
his  Work  and  Influence''  (Home  University  Library)  i 

II.  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN 

(a  DISCUSSION  OF  IMMORTALITY  FROM  THE  STANDPOINT 
OF  science) 

By  J.  A.  Hadfield,  M.A.,  M.B.,  Surgeon^  Royal  Navy  17 

III.  THE    RESURRECTION    OF   THE 
DEAD 

By  the  Rev.  B.  H.  Streeter,  M.A.,  Canon  Residentiary 
of  Hereford^  Fellow  and  Lecturer  of  ^leens  College^ 
Oxford.  Editor  of  ^ Foundations^  and  ^Concerning 
Prayer;  Author  of  ^ Restatement  and  Reunion^  .  75 

IV.  THE    LIFE    OF   THE   WORLD  TO 
COME 

By  B.  H.  Streeter     .  .  .  .  .131 


i'..-'^..>^jLH-*0 


vi  IMMORTALITY, 

V.  THE  BIBLE  AND  HELL 

PACK 

By  the  Rev.  C.  W.  Emmet,  B.D.,  Vkar  of  West 
Hendrcd^  Berh^  Author  of  ^  The  Eschatologkal  Ques- 
tion in  the  Gospels^  *  The  Epistle  to  the  Galatians ' 
(Readers^  Commentary)^  '  The  Third  Book  of  Macca- 
bees '  ^Apocrypha  and  Pseudepigrapha  of  the  Old 
Testament^  ed.  by  Charles)^  *  The  Fourth  Book  of 
Maccabees''  [S.P.C.K.  translations  of  early  documents), 
etc.  ......        167 

VL  A  DREAM  OF  HEAVEN 

By  A.  Clutton-Brock  .  .  .  .219 

VIL  THE  GOOD  AND  EVIL  IN 
SPIRITUALISM 

By  the  Author  of  '  Pro  Christo  et  Ecclesia  '  (Lily 
Dougall),  Author  of  '  Christus  Futurus^  '  Absente 
Keo^  *  Voluntas  Dei^  *  The  Practice  of  Christianity^ 
'  The  Christian  Doctrine  of  Health  ' ;  also  of  *■  Beggars 
All;  '  The  Zeitgeist;  '  The  Mormon  Prophet^  '  Paths 
of  the  Righteous;  etc.  ....        241 

VIII.  REINCARNATION,  KARMA    AND 
THEOSOPHY 

By  the  Author  of  '  Pro  Christo  et  Ecclesia  '      .       293 

IX.  THE  UNDISCOVERED  COUNTRY 

By  the  Author  of  '  Pro  Christo  et  Ecclesia  '       .       343 

Index  of  Subjects     .....       375 
Index  of  Names        .  .  .  .  .       379 


INTRODUCTION 

Man's  life  is  like  a  Sparrow,  mighty  King  ! 
That — while  at  banquet  with  your  chiefs  you  sit 
Housed  near  a  blazing  fire — is  seen  to  fiit 
Safe  from  the  wintry  tempest.      Fluttering, 
Here  did  it  enter  ;  there,  on  hasty  wing, 
Flies  out,  and  passes  on  from  cold  to  cold  ; 
But  whence  it  came  we  know  not,  nor  behold 
Whither  it  goes.     Even  such,  that  Transient  Thing 
The  Human  Soul.  .  .  . 

This  mystery  if  the  Stranger  can  reveal, 
His  be  a  welcome  cordially  bestowed  ! 

Because  they  believed  the  Roman  Stranger  could  reveal 
the  mystery  of  the  After-life  our  Saxon  fathers  accepted 
Christianity.  May  we  believe  that  any  teacher,  Christian 
or  other,  can  reveal  that  mystery  to  us  to-day  ?  .  .  . 
That  is  a  question  which  tens  of  thousands  are  asking  now. 

That  there  is  a  life  beyond  the  grave,  many,  perhaps, 
the  majority,  still  believe  ;  but  it  is  a  belief  resting 
mainly  upon  instinct  or  upon  a  tradition  the  trust- 
worthiness of  which  they  are  increasingly  aware  is 
being  questioned  from  many  sides. 

The  growth  alike  of  knowledge  and  of  moral 
insight  has  gradually  made  more  and  more  untenable 
the  conventional  pictures  of  Heaven  and  Hell  which 
seem  to  have  satisfied,  or  at  least  to  have  been 
accepted   by,  most   men    well   on    into   the   nineteenth 


viii  IMMORTALITY 

century.  Popular  confidence  in  the  authority  of 
Scripture  has  been  sapped  by  scientific  discovery  and 
vague  rumours  of  the  Higher  Criticism.  Above  all, 
by  demonstrating  how  intimate  is  the  union  of  the 
mind  with  a  brain  which  is  obviously  perishable,  Science 
seems  to  not  a  few  to  have  given  the  final  coup  de 
grAce  to  any  belief  in  personal  Immortality  at  all. 

To  such  a  situation  different  individuals  react  in 
different  ways.  To  the  ignoble  is  open  the  simple 
course,  "  Let  us  eat  and  drink  for  to-morrow  we  die." 
The  nobler  sort  are  moved  in  divers  ways.  Some  by 
an  act  of  will  turn  their  backs  upon  the  whole  of  the 
achievement  of  the  human  intellect  and  cling,  with  the 
desperation  of  drowning  men,  to  an  infallible  Bible 
or  an  infallible  Church.  Others  seek  new  light  in 
Spiritualistic  seance  or  in  Theosophical  revelation.  The 
majority,  thinking  like  the  old  Rabbi  that  "  God  hath 
given  man  the  present,  the  future  He  has  kept  in  His 
own  hand,"  give  themselves  over  to  the  task  of  living 
cleanly  and  doing  good  work  in  this  world,  deliberately 
refusing  to  let  their  thoughts  dwell  over  much  on  a 
possible  Beyond. 

Of  these  last  perhaps  the  greater  number  still 
"  faintly  trust  the  larger  hope "  ;  others  with  a  Stoic 
renunciation  reject  it  as  an  out-worn  superstition  and 
an  enervating  dream  ;  others  again  have  lost  all  interest 
in  any  life  beyond  the  present — and  are  content.  But 
such  contentment,  whether  the  disciplined  contentment 
of  the  Stoic  or  the  easy  acquiescence  of  the  indiflferent, 
has  a  way  of  breaking  down. 


INTRODUCTION  ix 

And  ah,  to  know  not,  while  with  friends  I  sit, 
And  while  the  purple  joy  is  pass'd  about. 

Whether  'tis  ampler  day  divinelier  lit 
Or  homeless  night  without  ; 

And  whether,  stepping  forth,  my  soul  shall  see 
New  prospects,  or  fall  sheer — a  blinded  thing  ! 

There  is,  O  grave,  thy  hourly  victory. 
And  there,  O  death,  thy  sting. 

And,  to-day,  most  of  those  who  care  little  on  their 
own  account  are  thinking  of  brave  men  about  whose 
present  case  they  would  fain  know  more — if  only  they 
believed  that  possible. 

But  is  it  really  necessary  to  rest  content  in  such 
a  state  of  doubt  and  darkness  ?  Has  Science  really 
proved  that  Mind  is  only  a  pale  reflection  of  material 
changes  in  the  Brain  ?  A  few  years  ago  it  did  indeed 
look  as  if  at  no  distant  date  such  a  conclusion  might 
be  reached.      It  is  otherwise  to-day. 

Again,  must  the  Christian  outlook  on  the  Future 
Life  be  for  ever  confined  within  what  we  now  know  to 
be  pre-Christian  forms  of  thought  which  were  already, 
when  St.  Paul  wrote,  obsolescent  ?  Must  a  grown  man 
always  lisp  in  baby  speech  .''  Is  Theology  the  one  de- 
partment of  human  enterprise  in  which  there  can  never 
be  advance  ^  And,  while  the  range  of  human  know- 
ledge is  expanding  yearly  on  every  side,  is  the  destiny 
of  man  the  one  and  only  subject  on  which  we  can  never 
hope  to  learn  something  new  ? 

Macaulay,  in  a  well-known  passage,  contrasts  the 
gigantic  strides  of  human  science  in  every  other  direction 
with  the  absolute  stagnation  in  our  knowledge  of  all 


X  IMMORTALHY 

that  lies  behind  the  world  of  sight  and  touch.  "  There 
are  branches  of  knowledge  with  respect  to  which  the  law 
of  the  human  mind  is  progress.  .  .  .  But  with  theology 
the  case  is  very  different.  ...  A  Christian  of  the  fifth 
century  with  a  Bible  is  neither  better  nor  worse  situated 
than  a  Christian  of  the  nineteenth  with  a  Bible,  candour 
and  natural  acuteness  being,  of  course,  supposed  equal." 

But  things  have  changed  since  Macaulay  wrote. 
Science  is  every  day  making  new  discoveries  which  bear 
on  the  relation  of  the  body  and  the  soul.  Psychical 
Research,  if  it  has  added  little  to  our  knowledge  of 
another  life,  has  at  least  thrown  startling  light  on  the 
nature  of  that  mind  whose  survival  is  in  question  ;  and 
Philosophy  has  not  been  idle.  The  application  to 
Theology  of  the  doctrine  of  Evolution  and  of  the 
results  of  Psychology  and  of  the  Science  of  Comparative 
Religions  has  given  a  new  meaning  to  the  word  Revela- 
tion ;  while,  in  the  light  of  lately  discovered  documents 
and  new  methods  of  study,  the  New  Testament  speaks 
with  another  voice.  It  is  not  the  lack  of  new  knowledge 
but  the  difficulty  of  co-ordinating  it  which  holds  us  back; 
for  no  one  person  can  have  really  first-hand  knowledge 
of  all  the  various  departments  of  thought  concerned. 

Discovery  comes  whenever  trains  of  thought  or 
pieces  of  information  originally  separate  are  seen  to 
illuminate  and  explain  each  other.  But,  when  the 
things  requiring  to  be  brought  together  exist  in 
different  minds,  this  fusion  is  made  harder  or  easier 
in  exact  proportion  to  the  degree  of  sympathy  and  the 
range  of  contact  between  those  minds      Hence,  though 


INTRODUCTION  xi 

much  may  be  accomplished  by  the  reading  of  books  or 
articles  by  workers  in  different  departments,  conditions 
become  more  favourable  if  this  can  be  supplemented  by 
the  living  contact  of  mind  with  mind.  The  maximum 
possibilities  of  such  fusion  of  different  strains  is  reached 
where  there  is  personal  as  well  as  intellectual  under- 
standing, and  where  there  is  an  overmastering  passion 
for  Truth  which  makes  each  willing  to  put  all  he  has 
into  the  common  stock,  to  hold  back  no  half-formed 
thought  as  foolish  or  immature,  to  secrete  no  bright 
idea  as  private  property,  and  to  defend  no  position  once 
taken  up  merely  from  respect  to  interest  or  conservatism 
or  from  personal  amour-propre.  Intellectual  co-operation 
only  achieves  its  greatest  possibilities  where  its  basis  is 
enthusiasm  for  a  common  cause  and  personal  friendship  ; 
and  experience  shows  that  the  intellectual  activity  and 
receptivity  of  each  is  raised  to  the  highest  pitch  when 
that  fellowship  is  not  in  work  alone  and  in  discussion, 
but  in  jest  and  prayer  as  well — for  humour  and  common 
devotion,  when  both  are  quite  spontaneous,  are,  though 
in  very  different  ways,  the  greatest  solvents  of  egotism 
and  a  well-spring  of  fellowship  and  mutual  understanding. 
Such  fellowship  and  co-operation  is  not  always  an  easy 
thing  to  compass,  but  when  it  exists  persons  of  quite 
modest  gifts  and  moderate  experience  can  do,  relatively 
to  their  capacity,  great  things. 

The  last  ten  years  have  seen  a  widespread  recognition 
of  the  value  of  this  group  method  of  attacking  current 
problems,  practical  as  well  as  intellectual.  The  volumes 
Foundations  and   Concerning  Prayer  were  an  attempt  to 


xii  IMMORTALITY 

apply  it  to  some  urgent  questions  of  Religion  ;  and, 
whatever  may  be  thought  of  these  works,  such  merits 
as  they  have  are  mainly  due  to  this  method  of  approach. 
The  experience  gained  in  the  preparation  of  these  books, 
particularly  the  latter,  suggested  the  hope  that,  by  the 
application  of  the  same  method,  light  might  be  gained 
on  the  burning  question  of  the  Future  Life. 

Several  whose  names  do  not  appear  on  the  title-page 
of  this  book  took  part  in  one  or  more  of  the  preliminary 
conferences  held  at  Cumnor,  and  contributed  memoranda 
on  special  points.  And  though  none  of  them  are  in 
any  way  responsible  for  the  opinions  expressed  in  any 
of  the  Essays,  the  authors  feel  bound  to  acknowledge 
the  value  of  their  participation  in  the  conferences  by  the 
mention  of  their  names  :  Dr.  E.  W.  Barnes,  Master 
of  the  Temple  ;  the  Rev.  W.  S.  Bradley,  Tutor  of 
Mansfield  College  ;  the  Rev.  C.  H.  S.  Matthews, 
Vicar  of  St.  Peter's,  Thanet  ;  Captain  W.  H.  Moberly, 
D.S.O.,  Fellow  of  Lincoln  College  ;  and  lastly,  Miss 
M.  S.  Earp,  who,  besides  being  present  at  all  the  con- 
ferences, has  given  invaluable  help  in  connection  with 
the  MSS.  and  proofs.  An  acknowledgment  is  also  due 
to  Miss  M.  E.  Campbell  for  the  compilation  of  the  Index. 

In  addition  to  the  discussions,  both  in  this  larger 
group  and  among  themselves,  individual  contributors 
have  had  the  advantage  of  being  able  to  consult  other 
friends  who  had  special  knowledge  on  particular  points. 
By  this  method  it  has  been  possible  to  focus  upon  the 
subjects  treated  a  range  of  thought,  experience,  and 
expert    knowledge   which    no    one   person   could   have 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

commanded  alone.  As  a  result  of  thorough  discussion 
a  degree  of  unity  and  unanimity  has  been  arrived  at 
which,  in  view  of  the  very  various  tastes,  training,  and 
experience  of  the  authors,  is  remarkable,  and  which 
encourages  them  to  believe  that  the  conclusions  reached 
are  really  sound.  Sometimes,  of  course,  an  Essay  treats 
of  subjects  of  which  its  author  has  himself  made  a 
special  study,  but  about  which  some  or  all  of  the  other 
contributors  feel  that  they  are  not  competent  to  speak 
with  authority  ;  and  things  are  sometimes  said  by  one 
writer  which  would  have  been  put  with  a  different 
kind  of  emphasis  by  another.  Subject,  however,  to 
these  reservations,  the  book  is  put  forward  on  the 
corporate  responsibility  of  all  the  contributors  ;  it 
presents  a  connected  train  of  thought  and  a  definite 
and  coherent  point  of  view,  and,  though  each  Essay 
is  complete  in  itself,  it  will  gain  by  being  read  in  the 
order  and  context  in  which  it  stands. 

In  the  first  two  Essays  and  the  first  section  of  the 
third  the  attempt  is  made  to  set  out  in  a  logical 
sequence  the  main  arguments  for  the  belief  in  personal 
Immortality.  The  rest  of  Essay  III.  and  Essays  IV.  to 
VI.  deal  with  the  nature  of  the  after-life,  and  discuss 
the  meaning  and  value  for  modern  thought  of  concep- 
tions like  Resurrection,  Judgment,  Heaven  and  Hell. 
Essays  VII.  and  VIII.  endeavour  to  estimate  judicially 
the  elements  of  truth  and  error  in  Spiritualism  and  in  the 
doctrineof  Reincarnation,  more  especially  in  relation  to  the 
claims  made  on  its  behalf  by  modern  Theosophy.  Essay 
IX. forms,  as  it  were,  an  Epilogue  to  the  whole  collection. 


xiv  IMMORTALITY 

The  effect  of  the  very  considerable  amount  of 
thought  and  labour  given  to  the  preparation  of  this 
book  on  the  minds  of  its  authors  has  been  to  convince 
them  of  three  things  : 

First,  they  have  come  to  see  that  the  belief  in 
personal  Immortality  rests  on  a  wider  and  surer  basis 
in  reason  than  they  had  originally  supposed. 

Secondly,  they  feel  that  though  a  veil  must  always 
hang  between  this  world  and  the  next,  it  is  not  entirely 
impenetrable.  If  he  will  only  seek  it  in  the  right  way 
some  real  and  definite  knowledge  of  the  life  Beyond 
can  be  attained  by  man. 

Thirdly,  if  they  believe,  as  they  do,  that  they  have 
something  of  value  to  contribute,  it  is  not  from  any 
conceit  of  their  own  ability,  but  because  of  the  method 
they  have  used.  This  has  been,  in  effect,  an  endeavour 
to  get  right  away  from  the  old  bickerings  between 
Science  and  Religion,  Reason  and  Revelation  ;  and  to 
bring  together  the  ascertained  results  of  different  branches 
of  Scientific,  Philosophical,  Critical,  and  Historical  study 
in  such  a  way  as  to  interpenetrate  and  illuminate  one 
another  in  the  light  of  the  values  derivable  from  Religion, 
Ethics,  and  Art.  But  what  they  have  done  is  only  to 
make  a  beginning,  and  they  are  confident  that  others, 
improving  on  their  method  and  commanding  wider  and 
deeper  ranges  of  knowledge  and  experience,  will  be  able 
to  go  further  forward,  and  that  such  light  as  men  can 
now  see  is  only  the  twilight  which  precedes  the  dawn. 

-,        p      ^  B.  H.  S. 

CuTTS  End,  Cumnor, 
October  i,  1917. 


7 


I 

PRESUPPOSITIONS  &  PREJUDGMENTS 


BY 


ARTHUR   CLUTTON-BROCK 

AUTHOR  or  "thoughts  on  the  war,"  "the  ultimate  belief," 

'WILLIAM     morris:     HIS    WORK     AND    INFLUENCE"     (hOME     UNIVERSITY     LIURARy) 


SYNOPSIS 


Agnosticism,  i.e.  complete  suspense  of  judgment  about  a  future  life 
is  really  impossible         ...... 

One  main  cause  of  disbelief  in  it  is  the  passion  for  disinterestedness. 
In  this  case  the  disbelief  is  not  so  complete  as  it  supposes.  It 
is  moral  rather  than  intellectual  .... 

Another  cause  is  the  reaction  against  current  presentations  of  the 
belief.  If  our  beliefs  fail  to  express  our  values,  we  reject  them. 
Our  effort  is  to  conceive  reality  in  terms  of  our  values.  The 
conflict  between  beliefs  and  values  is  most  acute  in  the  matter 
of  a  future  life  ....... 

There  is  a  disinterested  desire  to  believe  in  a  future  life  in  so  far  as 
we  wish  to  prove  the  justice  of  the  universe.  But  the  conse- 
quent effort  to  attain  certainty  leads  us  into  an  unjust  concep- 
tion.    So  we  lose  certainty         ..... 

The  belief  in  Hell  and  its  revenge  on  those  who  hold  it.  The 
natural  reaction  and  the  despair  of  all  belief  The  suspicion 
of  any  belief  in  a  future  life  as  tainted  with  egotism.  So 
agnosticism  seems  safer  and  more  moral 

But  there  is  always  a  counter -reaction.  The  revolt  against 
mechanical  conceptions  of  life  inevitable.  The  belief  in  a 
future  life  not  obsolete  but  always  growing.  Only  the  expres- 
sion of  it  becomes  obsolete.  Men  believe  more  and  more  in 
a  future  state.  But  they  have  to  earn  their  belief,  and  it  is 
always  being  destroyed  by  unearned  certainties.  It  can  be 
earned  only  by  the  practice  of  the  principles  of  Christianity 


TX 


I 

PRESUPPOSITIONS  AND  PREJUDGMENTS 

In  this  paper  I  propose  to  discuss,  not  the  reasons 
men  give  for  their  beUef  or  disbelief  in  a  future  life, 
but  deeper,  unconscious  causes,  which  are  peculiarly 
powerful  in  this  case  because  there  is  so  little  to  argue 
about.  The  unseen  world,  if  there  is  one,  is  unseen  ; 
and  we  know  no  facts  about  it  as  we  know  facts  about 
this  world.  Therefore  there  are  many  who  say  they 
are  agnostics  about  it  ;  but  it  is  impossible  to  be 
really  an  agnostic  about  the  question  of  a  future  life.  ^ 
If  this  life  is  a  preparation  for  another,  it  cannot 
be  the  same  for  us  as  if  it  ended  with  death  ;  hence 
we  cannot  escape  from  a  working  hypothesis  that  it  ■ 
does  or  does  not  end  with  death,  which  must,  one 
would  suppose,  affect  our  conduct.  It  may  be,  of 
course,  that  all  our  working  hypotheses,  all  our 
thoughts,  are  merely  part  of  a  mechanism  and  have 
nothing  to  do  with  our  conduct,  which  is  another 
part  of  the  mechanism  of  life.  But  we  must  and 
do  always  dismiss  that  possibility  when  we  think  ;  for 
it  makes  all  thinking  and  all  theories  futile,  including 
itself 

It  is,  however,  a  strange  fact  that  unbelievers 
in  a  future  life  do  not  greatly  differ  in  conduct  or 
in  values  from  believers.  They  do  not  say,  "  Let 
us  eat  and  drink  for  to-morrow  we  die."  They 
beHeve  just  as  firmly  in  absolute  values,  in  truth, 
in    righteousness,    and    in    beauty,    as    the    man    who 

3 


Wrt. 


4  IMMORTALITY  i 

could  draw  you  a  map  of  heaven  ;  indeed  they  often 
seem  to  believe  more  firmly  in  them,  for  it  is  possible 
to  believe  in  a  future  life  and  to  have  no  absolute  values 
at  all,  to  see  every  good  action  merely  as  an  investment. 
But  the  man  who  refuses  to  believe  in  a  future  life, 
if  he  acts  rightly,  must  do  so  for  the  sake  of  doing 
so  ;  righteousness  must  have  an  absolute  value  for  him 
indeed.  And  here,  perhaps,  we  may  find  the  cause 
of  much  avowed  disbelief.  It  is  really  faith,  a  faith  in 
absolute  values  which  refuses  the  support  and  comfort 
of  any  dogma.  It  maintains  that  man  has  his  values 
and  that  it  is  his  duty  to  obey  them  without  hope  of 
reward,  without  even  seeking  for  a  proof  that  they 
belong  to  the  order  of  the  universe,  that  they  are 
shared  by  anything  except  man  ;  that  man  must  be 
good  without  postulating  a  God  to  approve  of  his 
goodness,  or  a  universe  in  which  that  goodness  has 
any  significance  or  lasting  effect.  This  refusal  to 
believe  in  a  future  life  is  the  supreme  example  of 
man's  passion  for  disinterestedness.  It  is  the  most 
resolute  and  defiant  of  all  possible  answers  to  the 
question  —  Doth  Job  fear  God  for  nought  ?  The 
answer  is — Yes,  even  though  there  be  no  God,  and 
though  he  who  fears  is  but  a  quintessence  of  dust, 
for  a  moment  become  conscious  of  itself.  That  is  the 
last  asceticism  of  which  man  in  his  passion  for  absolute 
values  is  capable.  He  proclaims  them  in  the  face 
of  a  universe  which  he  asserts  to  be  utterly  indifferent 
to  them. 

But  this  asceticism  is  never,  I  think,  the  complete 
disbelief  it  supposes  itself  to  be.  Rather  it  is  a 
kind  of  self-  denial,  a  discipline  which  the  mind 
imposes  on  itself  so  that  it  may  be  sure  that  its 
values  are  absolute.  All  the  beliefs  of  man  have 
been  tainted  with  his  egotism  ;  they  have  supplied 
him  with  reasons  for  righteousness  other  than  the 
right  reasons,  and  have  therefore  perverted  his  very 
conception    of    righteousness.       Tantum    religio   potuit 


I     PRESUPPOSITIONS  &  PREJUDGMENTS     5 

suadere  malorum ;  and  we  are  better  without  it  in  the 
form  of  dogma,  for  we  cannot  trust  ourselves  not  to 
frame  dogmas  that  will  pervert  our  absolute  values. 
As  Nietzsche  said,  there  is  the  will  to  power  in  all 
religion  ;  and  it  continually  deceives  us  by  pretending 
to  express  our  absolute  values,  while  it  really  expresses 
our  desire  for  rewards  for  ourselves  and  punishments 
for  others. 

All  this  is  not  consciously  stated  ;  but  it  is  deep 
in  the  minds  of  many  upright  men  and  produces  in 
them  a  habit  of  defiant  incredulity,  which  is  not  so 
much  rational  as  moral. 

But  there  is  also  another,  narrower  reason  why 
many  excellent  men  deny  a  future  life.  What  they 
really  deny  is  not  a  future  life  generally,  but  the 
particular  kind  of  future  life  which  they  have  been 
taught  to  believe  in,  or  the  particular  arguments 
advanced  for  it.  It  is  a  natural  infirmity  of  the  human 
mind  thus  to  deny  the  general  in  the  particular.  There 
are,  for  instance,  many  people  who  suppose  that  the 
whole  question  of  a  future  life  is  bound  up  with  the 
notion  that  Heaven  is  a  place  above  the  sky  and  with 
the  dogma  of  the  physical  Resurrection  of  Christ.  It  has 
never  occurred  to  them  to  consider  the  two  questions 
separately.  Because  they  do  not  believe  in  a  local 
Heaven,  or  in  the  physical  Resurrection,  they  assume 
that  they  cannot  believe  in  a  future  life.  But  it  is 
possible  not  to  be  a  Christian  at  all,  to  believe  that 
Christ  never  existed,  or  never  to  have  heard  of  the 
name  Heaven,  and  yet  to  believe  in  a  future  life 
with  Plato.  Yet  another  irrelevant  cause  of  disbelief 
in  a  future  life  is  the  strange  assertion,  commonly 
associated  with  the  Christian  faith,  that  animals  have  no 
souls.  This  did  not  matter  so  long  as  men  saw  no 
likeness  between  themselves  and  animals  ;  but,  now 
that  a  thousand  discovered  facts  prove  the  likeness, 
the  contention  is  obvious  that,  since  animals  have  no 
souls,  men  can  have  none   either,  and   must   die  like 


6  IMMORTALITY  i 

dogs.  But  how  if  dogs  die  like  men  ?  How  if  animals 
are  like  men  rather  than  men  like  animals  ?  Perhaps 
the  last  piece  of  Christian  humility  we  have  to  learn, 
with  St.  Francis,  is  that  the  black  beetle  is  our  brother. 
Perhaps  it  is  the  generic  snobbery  of  man,  more  than 
anything  else,  that  has  deprived  him  of  his  highest 
hopes,  just  as  all  our  snobberies  deprive  us  of  hope 
by  emptying  life  of  absolute  values  for  us.  I  cannot 
believe  in  any  real  and  universal  fellowship  unless  I 
am  ready  to  strip  myself  of  all  status ;  1  cannot 
believe  in  a  real  future  life  so  long  as  I  think  of  it 
as  a  privilege  of  my  own  species.  In  the  long  run 
exclusiveness  always  shuts  out  those  who  exclude  ;  for 
there  is  a  terrible  unconscious  sincerity  in  the  human 
mind  by  which  all  lies  told  for  comfort  or  pride 
revenge  themselves  on  the  liar. 

If  in  our  beliefs  we  express  our  own  sense  of  status, 
our  own  hatred,  or  our  own  selfish  desires,  those 
beliefs  gradually  empty  the  universe  of  values,  and 
so  become  intolerable  to  us.  Then,  whatever  truth 
there  may  be  in  them,  is  also  rejected  ;  hence  much 
of  our  modern  defiant  refusal  to  believe  in  a  future 
state,  in  a  God,  in  a  universe,  which  can  be  valued, 
is  the  result  of  a  reaction  from  beliefs  in  a  future 
state,  a  God,  a  universe,  which  men  find  that  they 
cannot  value.  In  his  beliefs  about  these  things  man 
is  always  trying  to  express  his  absolute  values  ; 
but  his  beliefs  are  incessantly  tainted  with  his 
egotism  and  so  mis-express  his  values.  The  values 
are  permanent  ;  they  are  the  most  certain  and  un- 
changing fact  in  the  mind  of  man  ;  they  are  always 
seeking  expression  and  always  failing  of  it  because  they 
are  so  deep  and  unconscious.  There  is  in  man  always 
a  desire  to  love  something  for  its  own  sake,  and  not 
as  it  helps  him  to  live,  either  in  this  life  or  in  another. 
That  passion,  that  appetite  of  the  soul,  persists  always 
through  all  his  changing  bodily  appetites,  and  because 
of  it   he   can   never   be   content   with  the  pleasure  he 


I     PRESUPPOSITIONS  &  PREJUDGMENTS    7 

gets  from  them.  It  is  the  most  permanent  fact  of 
his  mind,  and  to  him  the  most  permanent  fact  of 
the  universe.  Therefore  he  makes  an  incessant  effort 
to  conceive  of  the  universe  in  terms  of  it.  Since 
he  has  this  incessant  desire  to  love  something  for 
its  own  sake  and  values  such  a  love,  whether  he 
attains  to  it  or  no,  above  all  other  experiences  of 
his  mind  or  body,  he  has  also  an  unceasing  desire 
to  find  in  the  very  nature  of  the  universe  that 
which  is  worthy  of  his  love.  This  desire,  because  of 
its  very  nature,  cannot  be  satisfied  by  any  merely 
comforting  belief.  It  is  indeed  the  reason  why  men 
are  suspicious  of  all  comforting  beliefs  ;  for,  if  I 
love  God,  or  any  one  or  anything,  so  that  I  may  be 
comforted  by  my  love,  my  love  itself  is  spurious. 
I  might  as  well  try  to  fall  in  love  with  a  woman 
because  she  is  rich.  But  what  man  desires  above  all 
things  is  a  love  which  is  not  spurious  ;  and  yet, 
because  he  desires  that  love  so  much,  his  egotism  is 
always  tempting  him  into  spurious  loves,  into  spurious 
certainties.  And  for  a  time  perhaps  he  is  certain, 
convinced  by  miracles  or  documentary  proofs  that 
he  has  found  the  true  God  whom  he  can  love,  the 
creator  and  ruler  of  a  righteous  universe.  But 
gradually,  through  that  terrible  unconscious  sincerity 
of  his,  the  very  proofs  which  have  given  him  certainty 
cause  him  discomfort.  He  finds  that  the  God  who 
has  been  revealed  to  him  so  precisely  does  not  satisfy 
his  own  values.  Will  he  then  give  up  the  God  or 
the  values .?  The  conflict  between  the  God  and  the 
values  rages  through  all  religious  history  ;  for  man 
clings  tenaciously  to  both  and  is  torn  by  the  logic 
which  would  force  him  to  reject  the  one  or  the  other. 

But  nowhere  is  this  conflict  fiercer  than  in  the 
matter  of  beliefs  about  a  future  life.  For  man  has 
a  disinterested  desire  to  believe  in  a  future  life.  It 
is  not  merely  that  the  individual  man  wishes  to 
survive,   that  his  egotism   cannot   endure   the  thought 


8  IMMORTALITY  i 

of  a  universe  in  which  he  himself  will  not  be  ;  it 
is  that  he  wishes  to  find  justice,  not  merely  in  the 
mind  of  man,  but  also  in  the  order  of  the  universe, 
and  that,  without  a  future  life,  there  seems  to 
him  to  be  no  justice,  no  significance  in  pain  and 
grief.  There  are  of  course  those  who  tell  us  that 
our  pain  and  grief  will  profit  posterity.  That  is 
not  certain  ;  and,  even  if  it  were,  there  would  be  no 
justice  in  it  ;  for  it  is  not  justice  that  one  man  should 
profit  by  another's  misfortunes  ;  justice  is  a  matter  of 
the  treatment  of  individuals,  not  of  the  race.  There 
it  is  like  love.  If  I  do  not  love  individuals,  if  I 
am  not  just  to  them,  I  do  not  love,  I  am  not  just, 
at  all.  So,  if  I  believe  in  the  love  and  the  justice 
of  God  at  all,  I  believe  in  His  love  and  justice  to 
individuals.  What  we  really  value  is  persons,  not 
processes  ;  and  we  cannot  value  a  mere  process  of 
salvation  for  some  abstraction  called  the  race,  if  persons 
are  utterly  sacrificed  to  it.  We  cannot  value  a  universe 
in  which  this  sacrifice  occurs,  whatever  brave  efforts 
we  may  make  to  do  so. 

Since,  then,  there  is  in  man  this  quite  disinterested 
desire  to  believe  in  a  future  life,  since  it  is  an  essential 
part  of  his  desire  to  believe  in  a  universe  which  he 
can  value,  man  is  continually  tempted  to  find  sure 
proofs  that  there  is  a  future  life.  He  is  "  hot  for 
certainties "  ;  and  these  very  certainties,  when  he  has 
attained  to  them,  cause  him  discomfort.  For,  since 
they  are  spurious  certainties,  they  are  always  tainted 
with  his  own  egotism  ;  and  there  is  some  lack  of 
the  very  justice  he  desires  in  the  future  state  of  which 
he  is  certain.  This  lack  of  justice,  though  it  may 
at  first  seem  to  work  in  his  own  favour,  will  afterwards 
take  a  terrible  revenge  upon  him  ;  for  it  is  the 
injustice  of  an  omnipotent  God,  in  whose  hands  he  is 
helpless.  There  is,  for  instance,  the  taint  of  egotism  in 
all  our  traditional  beliefs  about  rewards  and  punishments 
in  a  future  state  ;  men  have  always  used  those  beliefs  to 


1     PRESUPPOSITIONS  &  PREJUDGMENTS     9 

discourage  certain  kinds  of  conduct  and  to  encourage 
others.  Churches  in  particular  have  used  them  to 
suit  their  own  purposes.  They  conceive  of  a  God 
who  gives  to  their  enemies  the  kind  of  future  life  that 
they  deserve.  But  if  this  God  of  ours  is  capable  of 
punishing  our  enemies  as  we  wish,  He  is  capable  also 
of  punishing  us  as  He  wishes.  If  He  will  take  vengeance 
for  us  He  may  take  vengeance  on  us.  Vengeance  is 
mine,  saith  the  Lord  ;  and  vengeance  is  a  terrible 
weapon  in  the  hands  of  an  omnipotent  being  into 
whose  nature  you  have  read  your  own  vindictiveness. 
Hence  the  belief  in  Hell,  a  Hell  in  which  our  enemies 
will  suffer  ;  but  we  do  not  know  that  we  ourselves 
shall  not  meet  them  there. 

Men  have  been  utterly  certain  about  this  Hell,  and 
they  have  not  been  able  to  escape  from  the  logic  of 
their  own  certainty.  It  is  a  danger  to  them  as  well 
as  to  their  enemies  ;  if  they  use  it  as  a  terror  to  others 
they  cannot  escape  from  the  terror  of  it  themselves. 
They  can  escape  only  by  denying  it  altogether  ;  and 
this  denial  comes  to  them  at  last,  when  they  see  that 
they  cannot  value  the  God  whom  they  have  made  the 
instrument  of  their  own  vengeance.  Hence  the  fierce 
reactions  against  our  egotistical  conceptions  of  a  future 
life,  of  God,  of  the  universe,  reactions  of  man's  values 
against  his  spurious  certainties.  In  them  man  tries  to 
destroy  all  that  he  has  achieved  ;  he  despairs  of  belief 
altogether  and  finds  his  safety  only  in  denial. 

In  this  mood  he  is  peculiarly  suspicious  of  all  beliefs 
in  a  future  state  ;  for  they,  more  than  all  other  beliefs, 
have  been  tainted  with  egotism  and  discredited  by  the 
frightful  revenge  they  have  taken  upon  it.  Certainly 
belief  in  a  future  state  has  been  the  cause  of  more 
fantastic  misery  than  any  other  kind  of  belief,  the  cause 
of  more  fantastic  cruelty  inflicted  by  man  on  man.  The 
struggle  for  life  is  a  human  and  kindly  thing  compared 
with  the  struggle  for  salvation.  Egotism  in  time  can 
be  reasoned  with  and  limited  ;  but  egotism  projected 


10  IMMORTALITY  i 

into  eternity  goes  mad  with  its  own  terrors  of  eternity. 
Indeed  there  is  an  incongruity  between  egotism  and 
eternity  which  produces  madness  in  the  egotist  ;  for 
eternity  itself  is  a  conception  of  the  unegotistic,  the 
universal,  mind  ;  and  when  man  projects  his  egotism 
into  it,  fighting  for  life  as  in  time  and  space,  the  result 
is  a  nightmare. 

So  the  mind  of  man  is  at  the  present  day  suffering  from 
a  nervous  shock  caused  by  his  past  failures  to  conceive 
of  a  future  state.  A  burnt  child  dreads  the  fire  ;  and 
the  mind  of  man  has  been  burnt  by  the  fires  of  his  own 
imagined  Hell.  So  he  flinches  from  the  peril  of  any 
more  conceiving.  Rather  he  will  keep  his  values  and 
refuse  the  attempt  to  express  them  in  any  kind  of  faith, 
lest  he  should  lose  them  in  a  failure  of  expression.  For 
there  is  nothing  so  demoralising  to  the  nature  of  man 
as  these  failures.  They  alone  have  power  utterly  to 
pervert  his  values,  to  make  evil  seem  to  him  good. 
There  is  no  cruelty  like  religious  cruelty  ;  for  nothing 
but  religious  fanaticism  can  utterly  remove  the  natural, 
kindly  inhibitions  of  man's  nature.  Therefore  men  are 
shy  of  all  faith  lest  it  should  lead  to  fanaticism.  There 
is  to  them  something  sane  and  wholesome  in  the  avowal 
that  they  are  merely  animals,  for  then  at  least  they  can 
be  clean,  decent  animals  and  not  morbid  devils. 

And  yet,  as  I  said  to  begin  with,  we  cannot  thus 
artificially  and  wilfully  turn  away  from  the  question  of 
a  future  state.  For  it  does,  whether  we  wish  it  or  no, 
involve  our  whole  view  of  the  nature  of  the  universe. 
Is  the  ultimate  reality  person  or  process  ;  is  matter  the 
master  of  that  which  we  call  spirit,  or  spirit  the  master 
of  that  which  we  call  matter  ?  Is  there  such  a  thing  as 
spirit,  or  merely  a  complicated  mechanical  process  which 
becomes  conscious  of  itself  through  some  extra  intensity 
in  its  working  .?  There  is  no  getting  away  from  these 
two  alternatives.  Either  spirit  is  the  supreme  fact, 
supreme  over  all  changes  of  process  and  lasting  through 
them  all  ;  or  life  is  to  be  defined  as  a  mechanical  process 


I    PRESUPPOSITIONS  &  PREJUDGMENTS   1 1 

suffering  from  the  illusion  that  it  is  not  mechanical. 
In  which  case  nothing  distinguishes  it  from  not- life _ 
except  the  illusion.  If  that  be  so,  all.our  values  are  part 
of  that  superfluous  illusion  which  is  the  essence  of  life. 
But  however  much  we  may  seem  to  be  comfortably  im- 
prisoned within  the  illusion  of  life,  yet  the  fact  that  we 
can  call  it  an  illusion  proves  that  we  are  not  perfectly 
imprisoned.  The  cold  draughts  of  reality  do  find  their 
way  into  our  warm  prison-house.  That  consciousness  of 
ours,  which  we  are  told  is  in  its  very  nature  a  misunder- 
standing of  the  reality  of  ourselves,  has  by  some  means 
begun  to  be  an  understanding.  The  mechanical  process  is 
capajble  of  knowing  that  it  is  one  ;  a  remarkable  triumph 
no  doubt,  but  one  which  necessarily  must  tempt  it  to  the 
doubt  whether  it  is  a  mechanical  process  after  all.  Indeed 
the  mechanical  explanation  of  the  universe  would  be 
quite  satisfying,  if  only  it  were  not  we  poor  machines 
that  had  hit  upon  it.  But  the  mere  fact  that  we  are 
capable  of  hitting  upon  it  at  once  arouses  a  doubt  of  it 
in  our  minds.  For,  if  we  can  thus  triumphantly  rid 
ourselves  of  our  illusions  and  see  that  we  are  only 
machines,  what  is  that  property  of  the  machine  which  is 
thus  able  to  triumph  over  its  own  nature  ?  This  question 
the  machine  cannot  but  ask  itself;  and,  as  soon  as  it 
asks  it,  it  ceases  to  be  a  machine  to  itself.  Thus  there 
must  always  be  a  reaction  against  all  mechanical  theories 
of  life  just  as  inevitable  as  the  reaction  against  all  spurious 
certainties  of  supernatural  belief.  The  fact  that  we  are 
capable  of  conceiving  these  theories  will  always  in  the 
long  run  make  it  impossible  for  us  to  believe  them. 
We  do  finally  exist  for  ourselves  because  we  think  ; 
and  that  which  thinks  has  for  us  a  reality  superior  to 
that  which  it  thinks  about,  including  our  own  flesh,  a 
reality  persisting  through  all  changes  of  flesh,  even  the 
change  which  we  call  death. 

Therefore  men  will  continue  to  believe  in  a  future 
life,  will  indeed  believe  in  it  more  and  more  with  every 
increase  of  consciousness.     Such  increases  of  conscious- 


12  IMMORTALITY  i 

ness  produce  doubts  of  everything,  especially  doubts 
of  all  past  beliefs  ;  for  the  doubts  are  themselves  part 
of  the  increase  of  consciousness,  a  necessary  part  of  its 
conquest  of  its  own  subject  matter.  But  consciousness, 
with  every  new  conquest,  becomes  more  and  more  sure 
of  its  own  existence,  of  its  own  paramount  reality. 
With  all  his  dethronements  of  himself,  with  all  his 
efforts  to  explain  himself,  even  as  a  machine,  man  does 
become  more  and  more  aware  of  himself  as  a  person. 
And  it  is  this  growing  sense  of  his  own  reality  which 
makes  him  cast  about  so  wildly  for  explanations  of  him- 
self. The  more  this  person,  which  is  himself,  becomes 
to  him  an  ultimate  reality,  the  more  he  tries  to  explain 
it  in  terms  of  something  else,  of  that  which  he  observes 
rather  than  of  that  which  he  is.  He  cannot  explain 
himself  in  terms  of  himself ;  nor,  if  he  is  an  ultimate 
reality,  can  he  learn  the  nature  of  that  reality  from 
that  which  is  less  real  ;  yet  he  incessantly  tries  to  do  so 
in  the  mere  process  of  increasing  consciousness.  There 
is  this  paradox  in  the  whole  process  of  our  minds,  that 
we  become  more  aware  of  ourselves  only  through  our 
increasing  knowledge  and  experience  of  that  which  is 
not  ourselves.  And  this  paradox  tempts  us  continually 
to  believe  that  what  we  observe  is  true  also  of  the 
observer. 

We  observe  certain  processes  everywhere  ;  they  are 
truths  to  us  about  the  external  world  ;  and  we  believe 
that  they  are  also  true  of  ourselves.  We  see  the  process 
we  call  death  and  we  do  not  see  beyond  it  ;  so  we 
think  that  we  are  utterly  subject  to  it,  that  it  ends  us, 
because  we  observe  it  to  end  certain  formal  arrange- 
ments of  matter. 

But  though  we  may  think  this,  the  whole  of  ourselves 
is  never  utterly  absorbed  into  that  thought ;  for  that 
which  thinks  remains  behind  the  thought  and  is  capable 
of  a  vast  unconscious  reserve  from  its  own  thoughts. 
Through  these  very  thoughts  man  achieves  the  cer- 
tainty of  his  own  pre-eminent  reality  ;  and  it  persists 


I    PRESUPPOSITIONS  &  PREJUDGMENTS    13 

through  all  his  doubts  and  disputations.  At  certain 
stages  of  history  it  expresses  itself  in  a  more  and  more 
triumphant  faith  in  a  future  life,  and  in  other  things. 
But  this  faith,  unfortunately,  is  apt  to  be  too  triumphant ; 
it  goes  to  man's  head  and  makes  him  believe  that  he 
knows  more  precisely  than  he  can  know.  The  artist  in 
him,  the  passionate  expresser  of  faith,  is  confused  with 
the  man  of  science,  and  he  rushes  from  passion  to  logic, 
as  in  the  Athanasian  Creed.  He  expresses  his  certainty 
in  dogmas  which,  because  of  their  very  precision,  become 
obsolete,  for  the  precision  is  temporal  though  the  faith 
be  eternal.  He  parodies  his  own  certainties  in  a  wrong 
medium  and  then  falls  out  of  conceit  with  the  parody. 
It  is  not  enough  for  him  to  be  sure  of  his  own  para- 
mount reality.  He  must  turn  his  hymns  about  it  into 
guide-books  of  the  New  Jerusalem  ;  he  must  take  the 
Apocalypse  for  history  looking  forwards.  And  the 
result  is  that  sooner  or  later  he  ridicules  his  own  presump- 
tion and  tells  himself  that  these  certainties  of  his  are  out- 
worn superstitions  because  their  expression  is  obsolete. 

So  we  are  always  being  told  that  the  belief  in  a  future 
state  is  an  outworn  superstition.  But,  if  by  super- 
stition we  mean  a  mere  survival,  nothing  could  be  more 
untrue.  For,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  men  have  attained 
to  a  belief  in  a  future  state  very  slowly,  and  are  still  in 
process  of  attaining  to  it,  a  process  much  hindered  by 
their  disgust  of  past  failures  to  conceive  it  rationally. 
Primitive  beliefs  about  it  are  nearly  always  beliefs  in 
Ghosts,  in  appearances  of  the  dead.  For  to  the  savage 
the  dead  exist  only  in  the  shadowy  forms  in  which  (as 
he  supposes)  they  are  from  time  to  time  seen  by  the 
living  ;  they  are  not  spirits  in  our  sense  at  all  but  some 
kind  of  material  vapour,  all  that  is  left  of  the  flesh  after 
the  process  of  death,  like  the  smoke  that  rises  from  a 
funeral  pyre.  And  from  this  belief  in  a  material  phantom 
there  comes  a  belief  in  a  phantasmic  survival  of  life  in 
beings  that — 
Move  among  shadows  a  shadow  and  wail  by  impassable  streams. 


14  IMMORTALITY  i 

This  survival  is  as  inferior  in  reality  to  the  life  of  a 
living  man  as  the  phantom  is  inferior  to  the  living  body. 
The  whole  notion  arises  from  the  belief  that  such 
ghosts  are  seen,  and  from  the  dreams  and  visions  which 
are  the  support  of  that  belief.  They  do  not  spring 
from  any  sense  of  the  superior  reality  of  person  to  process, 
of  spirit  to  matter.  This  sense  grows  much  later  ;  and 
the  belief  in  a  future  life  which  is  based  on  it  can  be 
sharply  distinguished  from  the  belief  in  ghosts.  There 
is  all  the  difference  in  the  world  between  the  faith  of 
St.  Paul  and  Homer's  legends  of  the  underworld. 

And  yet,  even  now,  the  faith  is  constantly  confused 
with  the  superstition,  and  while  some  use  the  super- 
stition to  explain  away  the  faith,  by  others  it  is  employed 
to  confirm  it.  Traditional  Christian  teaching  has  in- 
herited from  pre-Christian  Judaism  notions  of  a  physical 
resurrection  and  a  local  Heaven  above  the  sky,  which, 
though  a  great  advance  on  early  ideas  of  ghost  survival, 
seem  crude  and  childlike  to  the  modern  mind. 

Hence  the  very  natural  tendency  to  think  the  faith 
itself  a  mere  superstition.  In  all  things  our  faith  is 
constantly  weakened  by  our  efforts  to  attain  to  a  cer- 
tainty we  have  not  earned.  We  would  have  scientific 
proof  where  we  cannot  have  it  ;  and  we  rely  on  scientific 
proof  for  that  faith  which  can  come  to  us,  if  at  all,  only 
through  our  whole  way  of  life  and  thought.  Hence 
the  incessant  excesses  of  our  belief,  and  the  incessant 
reactions  against  them.  Hence  also  the  strange  fact 
that  men's  conscious  beliefs  are  often  utterly  different 
from  their  unconscious.  The  conscious  belief  may  be 
merely  a  reaction  against  some  inadequate  expression  of 
belief;  the  unconscious,  all  the  while,  being  the  slow 
deposit  of  faith  produced  by  all  that  is  disinterested  in 
the  man's  life.  This  deposit  is  very  slow,  slower  still 
for  the  race  than  for  the  individual  ;  and  it  is  hindered 
by  all  perversities  both  of  theory  and  of  conduct. 
Whenever,  for  instance,  any  large  body  of  men,  whether 
a  class,  or  a  nation,  or  a  whole  civilisation,  are  filled 


I     PRESUPPOSITIONS  &  PREJUDGMENTS    1 5 

with  the  idea  of  their  own  peculiar  status,  whenever  it 
seems  to  them  that  they  are  born  better  than  other  men, 
then  there  is  a  necessary  decHne  in  their  sense  of  the 
justice  of  the  universe,  in  their  values,  in  their  faith. 
Life  loses  significance  for  them  because  they  have  found 
a  peculiar  significance  in  themselves.  It  is  no  accident 
that  the  exultation  of  Christian  faith  in  a  future  life  was 
combined  with  the  assertion  that  all  men  were  equal  in 
the  sight  of  God.  The  Christian  faith  went  with  the 
renunciation  of  all  status.  That  renunciation,  not  in 
words  only,  but  in  deeds  and  in  the  innermost  recesses 
of  the  mind,  was  a  necessary  antecedent  to  the  Christian 
happiness.  And  that  happiness  was  the  result  of  a 
collective  effort  made  by  a  whole  society,  which  would 
no  longer  believe  the  proud  nonsense  of  the  ancient 
world.  But  our  modern  world  is  full  of  a  like  proud 
nonsense.  Let  us  get  rid  of  that ;  let  us  once  again 
assert  the  equality  of  all  men  before  God,  assert  it,  not 
only  in  word,  but  in  thought  and  in  the  innermost 
recesses  of  the  mind  ;  and  then  we  may  leave  our  faith 
to  grow  of  itself  through  our  works. 


II 

THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN 

(A  Discussion  of  Immortality  from  the 
Standpoint  of  Science) 

BY 

JAMES  ARTHUR  HADFIELD,  M.A.,  M.B. 

SURGEON,     ROYAL     NAVY 


17 


PAGE 


SYNOPSIS 

The  main  problem  of  Psychology  is  the  relation  of  Body  and  Mind. 
The  mind  is  always  found  associated  with  a  brain  :  but  shows 
an  increasing  tendency  to  become  independent  20 

The  main  thesis  of  this  paper  :  that  the  tendency  of  the  mind 
towards  independence  and  autonomy  suggests  the  possibility 
of  its  becoming  entirely  liberated  from  the  body,  and  con- 
tinuing to  exist  in  a  disembodied  state. 

I.  The  main  Theories  of  the  Relation  of  Body  and  Mind   .  .         22 

The  Materialistic  :  that  mind  is  dependent  upon  the  activity 
of  brain  cells. 

The  Idealistic  :  that  the  brain  is  merely  an  instrument  of  the 
mind. 

The  Psychological  :  that  mind  and  body  interact  and  each 
has  the  power  of  initiation.  Psycho- 
physical interaction. 

II.  Study  of  the  Mind  in  its  present  stage  of  evolution  establishing 

its  dominating  Influence  over  the  Body.  .  .         25 

(i)  Influence  of  Body  on  Mind. 

Mental  disturbance  from  physical  causes. 
Localisation  of  mental  functions  in  the  Brain. 
(2)  Influence  of  Mind  on  Brain  and  Nervous  System. 

Examples  of  Psychic  blindness  :  deafness  :  and  analgesia. 
The    Nature   of  Hypnotism  and   of  "  Suggestion."     A 
phenomenon  of  relatively  heightened  attention.     Auto- 
suggestion and  trance. 
The  Power  of  the   Mind   to   heal   bodily   disease   by  mental 
suggestion. 
Neurasthenia  : 

Its  cause  and  cure. 

Rival  views  of  Neurologist  and  Psychologist. 
Two  illustrations  of  the  cure  of  Neurasthenia. 
"  Shell  Shock  "  : 

Illustrations  of  its  cure  by  mental  suggestion. 
The  Psychology  of  "  shell  shock." 
Christian  Science  : 

Its  claims  and  its  limitations. 
Telepathy  : 

Communication  with  spirits  of  the  departed  not  proved. 
But  the   phenomena  of  "wraiths"   too   frequent   to   be 
neglected  ;  and  other  evidence  proves  existence  of  mind- 
transference. 

18 


II  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN  19 

PAGE 

III.  Study  of  the  Biological  development  of  the  Mind,  proving  its 

Tendency  to  Autonomy  .  .  .  .56 

{a)  In  the  individual. 

Development  of  Vision  :  and  of  the  Emotions. 
{b)  In  the  race. 

Low  forms  of  life. 

The  advent  of  Consciousness — a  Psychic  fact  unexplained 

by  physical  terms. 
The  development  of  Will. 

Conclusion  :  .......         70 

Foregoing  evidence  not  a  proof  that  mind  will  survive,  but  leads 

us  to  expect  it.     A  reasonable  hypothesis. 
Speculation  on  the  purpose  of  our  earthly  life. 


II 

THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN 

(A  Discussion  of  Immortality  from  the 
Standpoint  of  Science) 

I  propose  in  this  Essay  to  approach  the  subject  from 
the  scientific  and  empirical  rather  than  from  the  philo- 
sophical and  speculative  point  of  view.  Psychology 
presents  us  with  no  more  difficult  and  certainly  no  more 
fundamental  problem  than  that  of  the  relation  of  the 
mind  to  the  brain.  Is  the  mind  merely  an  activity  of 
the  brain  cells,  a  product  of  nerve  stimulation  ?  Or,  on 
the  other  hand,  does  the  mind  dominate  the  brain  and 
use  it  as  its  instrument  of  expression  ?  On  our  answer 
to  this  question  depends  our  view  as  to  the  possibility  of 
the  survival  of  the  mind  after  the  destruction  of  the  brain. 

Let  it  be  frankly  admitted  at  the  outset  that  we  have 
no  scientific  proof  of  the  existence  of  a  disembodied 
mind,  a  mind  entirely  free  from  the  limitations  of  the 
brain.  All  the  philosophies  in  the  world's  history  were 
cradled  and  nourished  in  a  brain.  In  its  highest  flights 
of  fancy  or  in  its  wrestling  with  the  problems  of  life 
and  destiny,  the  mind  yet  finds  it  necessary,  like  Antaeus, 
to  keep  in  touch  with  mother  earth  from  whose  breast 
it  draws  its  sustenance  and  strength. 

Science,  I  repeat,  gives  us  no  evidence  of  the  exist- 
ence of  a  mind  disembodied,  naked  and  stripped  of  its 
covering  of  flesh — but  always  shows  us  mind  and  body 
associated  with  one  another.     Nevertheless,  I  propose 


II  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN  21 

to  bring  forward  evidence  which  will  encourage  us  in 
the  belief  that  in  the  course  of  evolution  the  mind  shows 
an  ever-increasing  tendency  to  free  itself  from  physical 
control  and,  breaking  loose  from  its  bonds,  to  assert  its 
independence  and  live  a  life  undetermined  except  by 
the  laws  of  its  own  nature.  The  main  argument  of 
this  essay  is  that  the  tendency  of  the  mind  towards 
independence  and  autonomy  suggests  the  possibility 
of  its  becoming  entirely  liberated  from  the  body,  and 
continuing  to  live  disembodied  and  free. 

If  we  can  demonstrate  from  the  point  of  view  of 
science  the  relative  autonomy  of  the  mind,  we  may, 
without  doing  violence  to  the  facts  of  science,  but 
rather  by  interpreting  the  processes  which  underlie 
them,  deduce  sufficient  proof  to  justify  the  conclusion 
that,  though  the  mind  is  in  this  life  always  associated 
with  the  brain,  it  can  under  suitable  conditions  survive 
the  destruction  of  the  brain  :  so  that  when  the  body 
crumbles  into  dust  the  mind  may  "  spring  triumphant 
on  exulting  wing." 

Modern  researches,  particularly  in  the  domain  of 
Psychology,  normal  and  abnormal,  have  opened  our 
eyes  to  the  vast  possibilities,  as  yet  unexplored,  which 
lie  latent  in  the  mind.  In  our  discussion  we  shall 
touch  upon  some  of  these  discoveries  in  the  sphere  of 
Hypnotism,  Telepathy,  and  Psychotherapy  or  mental 
healing,  as  well  as  in  the  more  "legitimate"  sphere  of 
normal  mental  biology  ;  and  these  studies  will  supply 
us  with  sufficient  evidence  to  establish  the  claim  of  the 
mind  to  a  progressively  increasing  independence,  and 
to  point  to  the  complete  liberation  of  the  mind  from 
the  body  as  the  probable  goal  and  destiny  of  natural 
evolution. 

It  will  be  convenient  to  divide  our  investigation  into 
three  main  sections  : — 

I.  The  main  theories  as  to  the  relation  of  body  and 
mind. 

II,  Evidence    from    the   study    of   the   mind    in    its 


22  IMMORTALITY 


II 


present  stage  of  evolution,  pointing  to  its  independence 
of  the  body, 

III.  Evidence  from  the  biological  evolution  of  mind 
in  the  individual  and  in  the  race  to  show  how  it 
originated  as  a  product  of  physical  stimulation,  but 
developed  into  a  psychical  force. 

I.  The  Main  Theories  as  to  the  Relation 
OF  Body  and  Mind 

A.  The  Materialistic. — The  first  and  most  material- 
istic view  regards  the  mind  as  a  direct  product  of  the 
brain.  Huxley  championed  this  theory  under  the  name 
of  "  Epiphenomenalism."  The  mind,  according  to  this 
theory,  is  "  foam  "  thrown  up  as  a  result  of  the  activity 
of  the  brain  :  a  "  mist  "  that  rises  from  the  surface 
of  the  deep,  formed  of  fine  particles  of  its  waters.  The 
mind  accompanies  the  brain  as  a  shadow  does  its  sub- 
stance, and  though,  like  the  shadow,  it  may  appear  to 
be  more  vivacious,  it  is  in  reality  completely  dependent 
upon  the  functioning  of  the  brain.  Every  thought  is 
the  result  of  chemical  or  mechanical  changes  in  the 
brain  :  an  "  idea  "  is  but  an  explosion  or  discharge  of  a 
nerve  cell  :  an  emotion  is  an  activity  of  the  brain  burst- 
ing into  flame  :  every  feeling  of  love,  aspiration,  or  fear 
can  be  explained  as  due  to  purely  physical  changes 
which  produce  the  vapour  of  thought  or  the  aroma  of 
virtue.  A  fuller  knowledge  of  the  physiology  of  the 
brain  would  enable  us  to  demonstrate  how  certain 
mechanical  forces  in  the  mind  of  Shakespeare  produced 
the  character  of  Hamlet  :  and  how  the  "  Dead  March  " 
in  ^aul  was  the  result  of  chemical  combustion.  Let  it 
be  understood  that  this  is  at  present  nothing  more  than 
a  theory,  for  these  chemical  changes  have  never  been 
demonstrated,  and  there  is  at  present  practically  no 
direct  evidence  in  favour  of  it.  The  effect  of  physical 
functions  on  the  mind  is  no  doubt  important  and 
far-reaching.     It  is  all  too  obvious  to  those  who  are 


II  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN  23 

compelled  to  live  with  sufferers  from  gout  or  dyspepsia, 
and  we  shall  do  justice  to  this  aspect  of  the  question 
later.  But  the  reverse  effect  of  the  mind  on  body  is 
incomparably  greater.  Meanwhile  let  us  note  that  to 
the  materialist  there  is  but  one  answer  to  our  original 
question  :  the  mind  will  be  abolished  as  soon  as  the  brain 
decays  :  the  shadow  vanishes  when  the  substance  is  re- 
moved: the  music  must  end  when  the  silver  cord  is  loosed: 
the  flame  flickers  and  dies  when  the  wood  is  burnt  to  ashes. 
B.  The  Idealistic. — The  second  theory  of  the  relation 
of  mind  to  body  carries  us  to  the  other  extreme.  In 
the  beginning  was  mind,  and  mind  created  the  physical 
world.  The  material  universe  is  the  plastic  substance 
out  of  which  mind  may  mould  her  thoughts  :  the 
instrument  upon  which  she  may  play  her  melody  of 
passion  and  grief  and  then  cast  it  off.  Without  mind 
the  earth  would  be  without  form  and  void :  for  it  is  the 
indwelling  soul  that  gives  form  to  the  shell  and  glad- 
ness to  the  summer  cloud.  Without  soul  the  leaf 
would  wither,  the  massive  crag  fall,  and  the  crystal 
crumble  to  an  amorphous  mass.  Wordsworth,  in  his 
meditations  on  Tintern  Abbey,  has  described  the 
presence  of  this  all-pervading  mind. 

And  I  have  felt 
A  Presence  that  disturbs  me  with  the  joy 
Of  elevated  thoughts:  a  sense  sublime 
Of  something  far  more  deeply  interfused, 
Whose  dwelling  is  the  light  of  setting  suns, 
And  the  round  ocean,  and  the  living  air, 
And  the  blue  sky,  and  in  the  mind  of  man. 

Mind  is  alone  real  and  eternal  :  the  brain  is  but  a 
deposit  thrown  out,  precipitated,  and  then  formed  into 
a  coherent  whole,  and  fashioned  as  the  instrument  by 
which  the  mind  communicates  with  the  material  world 
and  with  other  minds.  The  destruction  of  the  brain 
will  have  no  more  effect  on  the  existence  of  the  mind 
than  the  breaking  of  a  violin  on  the  genius  of  a  musician. 
The  mind,  being  eternal,  is  undisturbed  by  the  accidents 


24  IMMORTALITY  ii 

which  may  befall  the  material  and  temporary,  whose 
very  nature  is  to  decay, 

I  do  not  propose  to  discuss  in  detail  either  of  these 
two  views.  There  is  much  to  be  said  for  both  the 
materialist  and  the  idealist  position,  and  full  justice 
must  be  done  to  both  if  we  are  to  get  at  the  truth. 
But  we  pass  them  by  for  the  purposes  of  our  investiga- 
tion, because  both  views  if  accepted  in  toto  prejudge  the 
question  at  issue,  and  so  rule  out  all  further  discussion 
of  our  main  problem.  Both  the  materialist  and  the 
idealist  have  in  their  philosophy  decided  beforehand 
whether  the  mind  can  survive  the  destruction  of  the 
brain  :  it  is  as  impossible  for  the  mind  to  survive  on 
the  one  theory  as  it  is  necessary  in  the  other  :  and  no 
amount  of  argument  could  alter  these  conclusions. 

C.  The  Psychological. — For  the  purposes  of  our  dis- 
cussion we  take  as  our  starting-point  a  third  view,^ 
which  is  more  empirical  and  open  to  scientific  investi- 
gation, namely,  that  of  Psycho  -physical  interaction. 
On  this  view  every  thought  which  occupies  the  mind 
may  have  some  influence  on  the  nervous  system  :  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  every  change  which  takes  place  in 
the  brain  may  leave  its  mark  upon  mental  processes. 
This  theory  allows  of  a  certain  freedom  of  action 
to  both  the  mind  and  the  body,  but  yet  affirms 
their  interdependence.  At  one  time  it  is  the  mind 
that  initiates  action  which  results  in  molecular  and 
vascular  changes  in  the  brain  :  at  other  times  it  is 
the  cellular  activity  of  the  brain  which  modifies  the 
thoughts  and  emotions  of  the  mind.  For  example  : 
constant  mental  worry  tends  to  diminish  the  secretion 
of  bile  and  so  leads  to  indigestion  ;  on  the  other  hand, 
the  presence  of  bile  in  the  blood  not  only  produces 
jaundice  but  a  depressed  spirit  and  a  "jaundiced" 
view  of  life.  A  mighty  emotion  can  sway  the  body, 
throwing  it  into  paroxysms  now  of  fear  and  again  of 

'  Psychology  (I  employ  the  word  throughout  as  in  modern  scientific  usage)  in 
so  far  as  it  does  not  profess,  like  Idealism  or  Materialism,  to  be  a  philosophical 
theory  of  Ultimate  Reality,  is,  of  course,  not  exactly  a  third  alternative  to  them. 


II  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN  25 

joy.  Those  of  us  who  have  seen  men  in  mortal  terror, 
their  eyes  thrust  out  of  their  orbits,  their  hair  like 
bristles,  realise  how  the  mind  in  its  emotion  can  affect 
physical  processes.  On  the  other  hand,  all  of  us  have 
experienced  the  depressing  effect  on  the  mind  of  even 
a  slight  physical  indisposition,  producing  an  irritability 
which  we  know  to  be  unworthy  of  us  but  which  we  are 
unable  to  control.  "  The  train  of  representation  is 
determined  all  along  the  line  from  both  the  neural  and 
the  psychical  side,  with  constant  psycho-physical  inter- 
action, initiated  now  from  this  side,  now  from  that."  ^ 
Nor  soul  helps  flesh  more,  now,  than  flesh  helps  soul  ! 

Taking  our  start,  then,  from  this  theory  of  "  Psycho- 
physical interaction,"  and  assuming  that  mind  and  body 
are  constantly  influencing  one  another,  we  have  yet  to 
study  this  interaction  with  a  view  to  determining  which 
of  these,  the  mind  or  the  body,  is  the  dominating  factor 
in  our  lives,  and  whether  the  neural  or  the  physical 
exercises  the  more  compelling  influence  over  the  other. 
If  the  mind  is  dominated  by  the  body,  we  cannot  hope 
that  it  can  "  carry  on "  after  the  destruction  of  the 
brain  :  but  if  the  mind  proves  itself  to  have  gained  the 
mastery  over  the  flesh  and  can  force  its  commands  upon 
the  body,  then  we  may  infer  that  the  mind  holds  its 
destiny  in  its  own  hands. 

In  order  to  determine  this  question  of  dominance 
let  us  proceed  to  our  second  main  subject. 

II.  The  Study  of  the  Mind  in  its  present 
Stage  of  Evolution,  establishing  its 
Dominating   Influence  over  the  Body 

In  order  to  do  justice  to  both  sides  of  the  question 
I  shall  deal  first  of  all  with 

(i)  The  influence  of  the  body  over  mind,  and  then 
discuss 

(2)  The  influence  of  the  mind  over  the  body. 

1   W.  McDougall  in  Mind  and  Body. 


26  IMMORTALITY  ii 

(i)   The  Influence  of  the  Body  over  the  Mind 

An  impartial  study  of  facts  shows  that  the  mind  is 
not  that  independent,  detached,  self-determined  entity 
which  some  would  have  us  believe,  but  is  often  con- 
ditioned by  the  state  of  the  body  and  brain.  Some 
of  the  glandular  secretions  of  the  body,  the  thyroid, 
for  instance,  and  the  ovarian,  have  a  marked  effect 
upon  the  mind.  Most  of  my  readers  will  be  familiar 
with  that  form  of  idiocy  in  children  due  to  want  of  the 
thyroid  secretion.  This  dull,  heavy,  dribbling  child, 
without  inteUigence  and  without  character,  is  treated 
with  a  course  of  thyroid  extract  and  becomes  in  a 
few  months  as  quick-witted  and  self-respecting  as  the 
average  child  of  its  age.  The  discovery  of  the  patho- 
logy of  Cretinism  and  its  consequent  cure  have  no 
doubt  contributed  largely  to  the  diminution  in  the 
number  of  "  village  idiots  "  which  we  cannot  but  have 
noticed.  The  mind  and  intelligence  in  this  case  were 
obviously  arrested  by  the  want  of  this  physical  secretion, 
and  its  artificial  supply  was  followed  by  the  liberation 
of  the  mental  faculties  and  the  growth  of  intellect. 

Some  forms  of  insanity,  such  as  melancholia,  also 
seem  to  be  determined  by  physical  conditions.  In 
many  cases  such  a  disease  may  have  followed  and  been 
partly  caused  by  mental  stress.^  But  the  treatment  of 
the  mind  alone  seems  to  have  little  effect  on  this  disease, 
which  seems  to  have  a  physical  as  well  as  a  psychic 
origin,  and  is  probably  due  to  an  auto-intoxication,  the 
toxins  of  which  must  be  purged  from  the  body  before 
the  mind  can  become  sane  and  healthy  again.  It  is 
probable,  indeed,  that  a  good  deal  of  what  we  call 
*'  temperament "  is  due  to  the  secretions  and  toxins 
which  circulate  in  our  system.  It  is  interesting  to  note 
that  popular  language  suggests  that  the  origin  of  these 

^  I  have  been  particularly  struck  in  dealing  with  the  insane  amongst  Naval  men, 
with  the  fact  that  even  in  mental  diseases  of  an  undoubted  organic  origin  like 
General  Paralysis  of  the  Insane,  the  onset  of  the  symptoms  appears  frequently  to 
have  been  precipitated  by  a  shock  of  a  mental  character. 


II  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN  27 

states  is  due  to  physical  causes  :  we  speak,  for  instance, 
of  a  man  being  "  phlegmatic,"  i.e.  charged  with  a  super- 
abundance of  "  phlegm "  or  lymph  :  of  another  as 
"liverish":  and  use  phrases  like  "vent  his  spleen," 
"  make  his  gorge  rise,"  which  ascribe  mental  symptoms 
to  physical  causes.  We  are  not,  of  course,  defending 
the  use  of  such  phrases  as  being  accurate  (particularly 
in  the  case  of  the  liver,  that  long-suffering  organ,  which 
has  shared  with  the  kidney  most  of  the  abuse  of  the 
quack),  but  to  indicate  how  the  popular  mind  has 
fastened  on  the  idea  that  one's  temperament  is 
influenced  by  the  effect  of  physical  conditions  on  the 
mind. 

Another  indication  of  the  dependence  of  the  mind 
on  the  brain  is  to  be  found  in  the  phenomena  of  local- 
isation in  the  brain.  If  the  visual  centres  in  the  occipital 
lobe  of  the  brain  be  removed  or  injured,  we  lose  our 
sight  :  if  the  area  anterior  to  the  occipital  lobe  be 
injured,  we  retain  our  sight,  can  see  things  and  copy 
them,  but  we  fail  to  understand  their  meaning.  That 
is  to  say,  a  psychical  quality  is  lost  with  the  loss  of  this 
piece  of  brain,  clearly  indicating  that  besides  the  sensory 
centres  there  are  psychical  centres  in  the  brain  upon  the 
integrity  of  which  our  mental  condition  to  some  extent 
depends. 

Let  us  for  our  third  illustration  point  to  facts 
familiar  enough  to  all.  Let  the  reader  try  for  himself 
this  experiment.  When  he  is  feeling  gloomy  and  de- 
pressed, let  him  force  himself  to  smile  :  he  will  imme- 
diately find  the  influence  of  his  action  in  relieving  his 
gloom.  Let  a  man  who  is  walking  with  shoulders 
bent  and  eyes  cast  to  the  ground  in  thought,  raise 
his  head,  square  his  shoulders,  and  walk  upright.  He 
will  immediately  experience  a  martial  feeling  of  self- 
possession.  So,  clenching  the  hand,  setting  the  jaw, 
producing  a  sneer,  and  many  other  physical  actions, 
have  a  tendency  to  produce  the  mental  emotion  with 
which  they  are  associated.     A  very  familiar  illustration 


28  IMMORTALITY 


II 


of  this  same  law  is  that  the  attitude  of  prayer  helps  us 
to  realise  a  reverent  spirit.  We  shall  have  reason  to 
refer  to  this  subject  again  later  :  for  the  present  we  are 
only  concerned  to  show  how  physical  conditions  can 
modify  mental  processes. 

Let  us,  then,  do  justice  to  this  side  of  the  question 
and  admit  that  the  brain  has  its  share  in  influencing  the 
processes  of  the  mind,  and  realise  that  the  mind  cannot 
afford  to  spurn  the  advances  of  the  body,  but  must  for 
its  own  health  maintain  amicable  relations  with  it. 
The  mens  sana  and  the  corpus  sanum  are  intimately 
connected. 

(2)   The  Influence  of  the  Mind  on  the  Brain  and  Nervous 

System 

Having  acknowledged  the  service  rendered  by  the 
brain  to  the  mind,  we  turn  to  the  facts  pointing  to  the 
influence  of  the  mind  on  the  brain  and  nervous  system. 
We  shall  find  that  the  mind  not  only  influences  the 
body,  but  that  it  has  an  increasing  tendency  to  dominate 
the  body  and  control  its  sensations. 

Let  us  take  a  common  illustration.  A  woman 
receives  the  news  of  the  sudden  death  of  her  husband. 
This  is  a  "  psychic  "  cause  :  we  call  it  psychic  because 
it  is  not  the  message  as  spoken  that  produces  the  efi^ect 
on  her  (she  had  often  before  felt  the  impact  of  the  sound- 
waves of  the  word  "  death  "),  but  its  significance  for  her. 
We  see  the  flush — an  attempt  of  the  heart  to  drive  suffi- 
cient blood  to  the  brain  to  stand  the  shock — the  subse- 
quent pallor,  the  sickness,  the  trembling,  and  ultimately 
the  loss  of  consciousness,  by  which  means  nature  delivers 
her  from  the  agony  of  mental  pain.  These  phenomena 
of  the  circulation  and  nervous  system  are  produced  by 
a  cause  that  is  purely  psychical  in  origin,  and  prove 
that  the  mind  is  able  to  use  the  body  to  express  its  feel- 
ings and  emotions,  like  the  evening  wind  which  makes 
the  trees  rustle  as  in  merriment  or  moan  as  in  sadness. 


II  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN  29 

Again,  there  is  conclusive  evidence  that  the  mind 
can  completely  dominate  sensations,  not  only  by  con- 
trolling but  even  by  abolishing  all  feeling  of  them. 
Those,  for  instance,  who  are  accustomed  to  use  micro- 
scopes are  able  to  produce  a  psychic  blindness  in  one 
eye.  Whilst  the  right  eye,  let  us  say,  is  kept  focussed  on 
the  slide,  the  left  eye  is  kept  open,  but  is  yet  blind  to 
the  rays  of  light  which  come  to  it.  The  beginner  is  at 
first  confused  with  rays  coming  from  the  slide  and  from 
the  surroundings  simultaneously,  but  a  little  training 
enables  him  to  cut  out  the  vision  of  the  surroundings 
in  the  left  eye  even  though  this  eye  is  kept  open.  The 
rays  of  light  from  the  table,  stand,  and  other  surround- 
ings are  still  striking  his  retina,  but  the  mind  refuses 
to  admit  them.  The  mind  thus  has  the  power  to  refuse 
the  sensations  offered  to  it  and  to  decide  which 
sensations  it  will  reject  and  which  accept. 

A  similar  phenomenon  is  observed  in  the  hypnotic 
state.  A  hypnotised  subject  may  be  told  to  observe 
every  picture  on  a  wall  except  one,  and  he  will  no 
longer  see  this  picture.  His  sight  is  not  impaired  in 
any  way,  since  he  can  observe  the  other  pictures,  but 
a  psychic  blindness  has  been  produced,  the  mind  having 
the  power  to  refuse  the  sensations  due  to  the  rays  of 
light  coming  from  that  one  picture.  "  Having  eyes 
they  see  not." 

I  have  at  the  present  time  a  patient  who,  in  the 
hypnotised  state,  converses  with  me  and  obeys  my 
commands.  But  should  any  one  else  command  him 
or  speak  to  him  he  is  completely  deaf  to  the  voice  and 
makes  no  response,  telling  me  that  he  hears  nothing. 
But  as  soon  as  I  tell  him  that  he  will  hear  the  other  voice, 
he  immediately  responds,  and  carries  out  the  commands 
of  the  man  to  whose  voice  he  was  previously  deaf. 
The  stimuli  enter  the  brain  alike  in  both  cases  :  but  in 
the  first  case  the  mind  is  psychically  deaf  to  them. 

The  extremes  of  concentration  of  which  the  mind  is 
capable  are  exemplified  in  the  analgesia  or  loss  of  the 


30  IMMORTALITY  ii 

sensation  of  pain  which  can  be  produced  in  a  hypnotised 
person.  I  remember  a  case  (though  I  was  not  fortunate 
enough  to  see  it)  in  one  of  the  operating  theatres  of 
Edinburgh  Royal  Infirmary  in  which  a  major  abdominal 
operation  (for  hernia)  was  performed  on  a  student 
with  no  anaesthetic  except  that  of  hypnotic  suggestion. 
The  patient  was  admitted  to  the  hospital  the  day  before 
the  operation,  was  hypnotised  by  his  own  family  doctor 
that  night  and  told  under  hypnosis  that  the  next  day, 
before  the  operation,  the  house  surgeon  of  the  wards 
would  tell  him  to  sleep,  and  that  he  would  pass  into 
a  condition  in  which  he  would  feel  no  pain.  The 
house  surgeon  duly  carried  out  his  instructions,  and 
though,  as  far  as  I  remember,  he  had  never  had  any 
acquaintance  with  hypnotism  before,  his  suggestion 
produced  the  desired  condition  in  the  patient.  The 
patient  was  operated  on  painlessly,  and  recovered  with- 
out discomfort.  Indeed,  hypnotism  is  the  ideal  anaes- 
thetic if  the  patient  is  sufficiently  susceptible  to  its 
influence,  for  it  is  followed  by  none  of  those  nauseating 
symptoms  of  chloroform  poisoning  so  distressing  to  the 
patient,  and,  what  is  even  more  important,  it  is  not 
accompanied  by  the  same  degree  of  shock.  Hypnotic 
anaesthesia  differs  from  that  of  chloroform  in  that  it 
is  an  anaesthetic  of  the  mind,  in  contrast  to  that  of 
chloroform,  which  produces  its  effect  on  the  brain  by 
melting  the  myelin  fat  round  the  nerve  cells,  or  by 
some  other  chemical  action  which  cuts  off  these  cells 
from  external  stimuli. 

These  illustrations  of  the  reaction  of  the  mind  under 
hypnosis  are  extremely  important,  for  they  show  us  the 
mind  so  dominating  the  senses  that  it  can  abolish  the 
sensations  coming  from  them,  and  maintain  an  attitude 
of  complete  indifference  to  the  most  urgent  calls  of 
physical  pain.  What  more  suggestive  evidence  could 
we  have  that  the  ,mind  is  well  on  its  way  to  that  state 
in  which  it  may  dispense  altogether  with  the  physical, 
and  wing  its  way  to  freedom  and  independence  ? 


II  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN  31 

Hypnotism,  however,  has  discovered  for  us  another 
truth  of  great  importance,  namely,  that  the  mind 
presides  over  even  those  functions  of  the  body  which  we 
regard  as  "  vegetative  "  ;  we  refer  to  the  secretions  of 
glands,  the  flow  of  gastric  and  other  digestive  juices, 
the  function  of  digestion,  the  peristaltic  movements  of 
the  bowels,  changes  in  the  calibre  of  the  arteries  and  so 
forth.  Are  these  functions  controlled  and  regulated 
by  the  mind,  or  by  purely  mechanical  or  reflex  pro- 
cesses ?  Over  these  actions  we  certainly  have  no 
'Voluntary  control.  Our  efibrts  to  stop  ourselves 
blushing  are  as  futile  as  our  attempts  to  cure  a  spasm 
of  colic  by  force  of  will  or  expenditure  of  thought. 
AH  these  effects  are  normally  the  result  of  reflex  action, 
and  are  regulated  by  the  so-called  autonomic  or  sym- 
pathetic nervous  system.  It  is  usually  the  presence  of 
food  in  the  stomach  that  excites  the  stomach  to  secrete 
its  hydrochloric  acid,  and  it  is  the  pressure  of  food, 
or  the  irritation  of  some  poison  on  the  bowel  wall,  that 
causes  it  to  contract  into  a  colic  spasm  in  order  to  drive 
out  the  irritant :  it  is  the  efi^ect  of  heat  upon  the  skin 
that  dilates  the  arterioles,  thus  bringing  the  blood  to 
the  skin  surface,  and  so  cooling  the  blood  by  contact 
with  the  outside  air.  But  it  seems  to  have  escaped 
the  observation  of  some  physiologists  that  the  sympa- 
thetic nervous  system,  which  normally  acts  reflexly,  may 
itself  be  controlled  and  modified  by  mental  processes. 
It  is  true  that  our  conscious  will  has  no  influence  over 
them,  but  the  "  unconscious  "  part  of  the  mind  certainly 
has  the  power  to  initiate  or  modify  these  functions  of 
secretion  and  circulation,  as  we  may  prove  by  experi- 
menting with  a  subject  under  hypnosis.  Let  us  try 
this  simple  experiment  (which  the  writer  has  per- 
formed) :  let  a  subject  be  hypnotised,  and  while  he  sits 
calmly  and  quietly  in  his  chair,  suggest  to  him  that  his 
hand  is  becoming  suffused  with  blood.  In  the  course 
of  half  a  minute  or  so  this  hyperaemia  is  produced  in 
the    hand    indicated,   whilst    the    other    hand    remains 


32  IMMORTALITY  ii 

pallid.  The  secretion  of  perspiration  may  be  similarly 
regulated.  In  some  rare  but  well-authenticated  cases 
blisters  have  been  produced  on  the  skin  by  mental 
suggestion  under  hypnosis.^  Again,  the  action  of  the 
intestines,  over  which  the  conscious  volition  has  no 
direct  control,  is  easily  regulated  by  mental  suggestion 
when  the  subject  is  under  hypnosis,  and  thus  constipa- 
tion may  be  rapidly  and  easily  cured.^  So  we  might 
review  the  other  vegetative  functions  of  the  body,  but 
the  illustrations  given  will  be  sufficient  to  prove  that 
the  mind  exerts  a  controlling  influence  over  even  the 
reflex  and  autonomic  functions  of  the  nervous  system, 
and  may  at  any  time  assert  its  claim  to  regulate  and 
direct  them. 

The  Nature  of  Hypnotism  and  Suggestion 

Before  proceeding  to  discuss  the  power  of  the 
mind  in  curing  bodily  disease,  it  may  not  be  out  of 
place  to  refer  to  the  nature  of  the  hypnotic  state  and  of 
"  suggestion."  The  name  "  Hypnotism  "  was  origin- 
ally introduced  by  Braid  to  describe  this  state  because 
it  resembled  sleep  in  its  mode  of  induction,  its  outward 
appearance  of  quiescence,  and  in  the  loss  of  memory 
produced.  But  Braid  abandoned  the  term  because  it 
was  found  that  the  mind  was  really  in  a  state  of  activity, 
and  in  a  subsequent  hypnosis  a  person  could  recall  all 
that  occurred  in  the  previous  seance.  It  therefore 
became  the  fashion  to  attribute  the  phenomena  of 
hypnotism  to  a  "  subconscious  self."  There  seems  to 
me,  however,  to  be  a  much  simpler  explanation,  and 
one  which  avoids  the  necessity  of  assuming  a  separate 
"  self."  Hypnotism,  far  from  being  a  condition  of 
sleep,  is  a  condition  of  heightened  attention.     In  this 

1  Since  writing  this  I  have  performed  this  experiment  ;  cf.  p.  74,  Note  A. 

'^  I  have  at  present  a  patient  with  chronic  constipation  whose  condition  became 
so  severe  that  he  was  invalided  from  his  duties  as  a  Probationary  Flight  Officer  and 
his  commission  cancelled.  When  he  came  under  my  care  he  had  for  months  been 
treated  with  the  most  drastic  purgatives.  After  a  fortnight's  treatment  by  Psycho- 
therapy his  disability  has  disappeared  and  he  is  looking  a  different  being.  The  con- 
dition in  his  case  had  been  brought  on  and  perpetuated  by  worry. 


II  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN  33 

state  the  attention  is  so  fixed  on  some  dominating 
idea,  as,  for  instance,  that  the  subject  is  in  a  garden  of 
flowers,  that  his  mind  is  abstracted  from  everything 
else,  and  there  results  a  dissociation  of  consciousness. 
In  short,  there  is  produced  the  same  kind  of  psychic 
blindness  which  I  have  illustrated  in  the  bacteriologist 
looking  through  the  microscope,  and  in  the  patients 
whose  indifference  to  the  sensation  of  pain  I  have 
cited.  The  state  of  hypnosis,  then,  is  a  state  of 
abstraction  from  the  world  produced  by  devoting  the 
whole  attention  to  one  idea,  or  to  a  single  complex  of 
ideas. 

The  method  of  inducing  hypnotism  also  suggests 
this  as  the  true  explanation.  Whatever  the  method 
employed — gazing  at  a  bright  light  ;  listening  to  the 
monotonous  beat  of  a  metronome  ;  feeling  the  sooth- 
ing  sensation  of  "  passes,"  or  picturing  some  quiet 
scene  suggestive  of  rest — there  is  one  feature  common 
to  all  and  essential  to  the  success  of  the  hypnosis, 
namely,  that  the  attention  of  the  subject  is  arrested  by 
one  idea  or  group  of  ideas  to  the  exclusion  of  all  others. 
This  is  brought  about  partly  by  suppressing  other 
sensations,  and  partly  by  focussing  the  attention  upon 
the  object  selected.  The  hypnotist  having  once  arrested 
the  attention,  and  fixed  it  upon  one  idea  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  all  other  ideas,  thoughts,  and  sensations,  can 
then  shift  it  from  one  point  to  another,  from  one  idea 
to  another,  to  each  of  which  the  subject  gives  his 
undivided  attention.  The  magnet,  as  it  moves  from 
point  to  point  over  a  sheet  of  iron  filings,  concentrates 
the  filings  and  accumulates  them  into  a  little  heap, 
now  here,  now  there.  The  hypnotist,  working  on 
the  mind  of  the  subject,  first  arrests  his  attention, 
concentrating  it  on  one  fixed  point,  and  then  is  able  to 
shift  his  attention  from  point  to  point.  During  the 
hypnosis  the  attention  is  at  such  a  pitch  of  concentra- 
tion, and  is  raised  to  such  high  pressure,  that  if  a 
channel    towards    motor   discharge   or   sensory    feeling 

D 


34  IMMORTALITY  ii 

is  opened,  the  accumulated  energy  finds  an  immediate 
outlet  in  action.  There  is  no  room  here  for  the 
criticism  of  the  reason  or  for  inhibition  :  all  opposi- 
tion is  swept  away,  so  that  the  subject  forthwith  per- 
forms the  action  or  is  swayed  by  the  feelings  suggested, 
however  irrational  these  may  be.^ 

It  is  interesting  to  note,  however,  that  this  flood  of 
energy  is  not  sufficient  to  overcome  the  moral  sense 
although  it  may  override  the  ordinary  barriers  of 
convention  and  perform  actions  that  are  stupid.  The 
hypnotised  person  will  refuse  to  do  anything  that  is 
strongly  repugnant  to  him.  I  have,  indeed,  had  such 
opposition  in  a  recent  case  of  mine,  where  the  patient 
consistently  refused  to  carry  out  an  action  to  which  he 
was  opposed,  even  when  he  was  deeply  hypnotised. 
The  case  in  point  was  one  in  which  I  wished  to  take 
out  the  patient's  teeth  with  hypnosis  as  an  anaesthetic, 
as  he  was  too  weak  in  health  to  have  gas.  For  some 
reason  he  had  a  rooted  objection  to  this,  which  I  could 
not  overcome.  I  could  make  him  do  all  manner  of 
stupid  things,  laugh  and  cry  alternately,  or  dance  on 
one  leg,  and  could  stick  pins  into  him  without  his 
apparently  feeling  it,  but  any  attempts  to  persuade 
him  to  have  his  teeth  out  invariably  aroused  his 
opposition,  and  he  absolutely  reflised  to  have  it  done. 
In  another  case  of  mine  the  patient,  under  deep  hypnosis, 
persisted  even  in  an  absolute  lie,  on  which  he  had  staked 
his  reputation,  so  rooted  was  his  determination  to  carry 
out  the  deception.  The  hypnotised  person  is  therefore 
not  the  automaton  some  people  would  have  us  believe. 

This  theory  of  hypnosis  as  a  condition  of  heightened 

1  Since  writing  this  account  of  hypnotism  I  have  read  an  article  by  Dr.  W. 
McDougall,  of  Oxford,  on  the  "State  of  the  Mind  during  Hypnosis."  His  view 
differs  from  that  suggested  in  this  paper,  in  that  he  lays  emphasis  not  on  the 
heightened  attention  of  the  one  idea,  so  much  as  the  suppression  of  the  remaining 
ideas  and  sensations  in  the  brain.  Both  views,  however,  agree  that  hypnosis  is  the 
relative  predominance  of  one  idea  or  group  of  ideas  :  and  both  seem  to  be  opposed 
to  the  relegating  of  hypnotic  phenomena  to  a  "subconscious  self."  I  have  the 
feeling  that  the  "subconscious  self"  has  had  too  much  imposed  upon  it  by  an 
admiring  public. 


II  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN  35 

attention  also  explains  the  tremendous  force  that  lies 
in  suggestion  under  hypnosis.  The  suggestions  of 
health  and  well-being  absorb  for  the  time  the  whole 
mind  and  exert  a  correspondingly  powerful  effect.  If 
presented  to  the  mind  in  its  ordinary  waking  state 
such  suggestions  are  immediately  made  null  and  void 
by  the  reason,  which  criticises  the  ideas  suggested  and 
tells  the  patient  that  he  is,  in  fact,  not  well,  that  his 
digestion  is  out  of  order,  and  his  business  is  going  to 
the  dogs.  But  under  hypnosis  the  reason  is  inhibited 
and  the  whole  attention  of  the  patient  is  concentrated 
on  the  idea  that  he  is  becoming  vigorous  and  strong, 
that  he  will  be  determined  to  tackle  his  business 
courageously,  that  his  appetite  will  improve,  and  that 
he  will  forget  his  melancholy  in  a  flood  of  happiness. 

By  "  suggestion  "  we  mean  the  insinuation  of  an 
idea  into  the  mind  in  such  a  way  that  it  does  not  clash 
with  the  critical  and  reasoning  faculty.  This  is  essen- 
tially the  nature  and  meaning  of  "  suggestion  "  in  the 
therapeutic  sense.  The  suggestion  exerts  its  influence 
on  the  mind  owing  to  the  fact  that  it  is  working  without 
the  opposition  of  the  critical  faculty,  which  is  abolished 
by  hypnotism  or  the  induction  of  a  quiescent  state  in 
the  subject.  Having  induced  this  state  we  proceed  to 
make  these  "suggestions"  of  health  and  well-being, 
which  we  have  already  described,  and  which  produce 
so  potent  an  efi^ect  on  the  personality  of  the  patient. 
We  shall  proceed  later  to  deal  with  this  power  which 
the  mind  possesses  of  modifying  physical  functions  and 
curing  physical  disease. 

Auto-suggestion  and  Trance 

The  similarity  of  Hypnotic  states  to  the  condition 
of  Trance  makes  it  necessary  to  say  a  little  on  this 
subject,  particularly  as  it  has  an  important  bearing  on 
the  subjects  discussed  later  in  Essays  VII.  and  VIII,, 
pp.  261  f.,  322  fi^. 


36  IMMORTALITY  ii 

First  let  us  enumerate  the  various  stages  of  Hypnosis. 
Probably  the  simplest  type  of  the  hypnotic  state  is 
"reverie" — that  condition  in  which  the  mind  is  absorbed 
with  its  own  thoughts  of  some  far  distant  scene, 
or  pleasing  recollection  of  the  past,  and  so  becomes 
oblivious  to  all  its  surroundings.  Some  people  are 
more  prone  to  these  moods  of  abstraction  than  others, 
and  will  walk  along  the  busiest  thoroughfares  and  yet 
be  entirely  dissociated  from  all  the  sounds  and  sights 
of  their  environment.  This  is  really  a  very  early  stage 
of  hypnosis,  in  this  case,  self-imposed. 

When  I  hypnotise  a  patient  the  first  state  into 
which  he  passes  is  one  in  which  he  is  completely  con- 
scious of  all  that  is  taking  place,  but  is  flaccid  and 
unable  to  produce  any  voluntary  movement.  In  my 
own  experience  of  being  hypnotised,  I  have  found  this 
stage  to  be  one  of  extraordinary  lucidity.  One's  mind 
seems  to  pass  into  space  in  which  the  atmosphere  is 
rarefied  and  thought  clear  and  electric.  One  seems  to 
possess  a  bird's-eye  view  of  events,  to  see  them  in 
their  entirety,  and  yet  to  be  conscious  of  their  minutest 
detail.  This  condition  most  of  us  have  experienced 
when  lying  half- awake  in  bed.  We  know  perfectly 
well  all  that  transpires,  but  we  have  not  the  voluntary 
power  to  move  and  get  up.  It  is  significant  that  many 
poets,  philosophers,  orators,  and  even  mathematicians 
receive  some  of  their  greatest  inspirations  in  this  condi- 
tion, and  solve  problems  which  months  of  previous 
labour  had  failed  to  elucidate.  The  clairvoyance  of 
the  crystal-gazer  appears  to  belong  to  this  stage,  and  it 
is  probably  whilst  in  this  condition  that  mystics  and 
seers  have  their  visions.  As  a  rule,  they  are  not  aware 
of  having  been  in  a  state  of  mind  in  any  sense  abnormal, 
but  feel  that  they  have  their  wits  about  them  during 
the  whole  period.  This  stage  of  hypnosis  is  an  excel- 
lent one  for  treatment  by  suggestion,  for  in  it  the 
suggestions  made  are  exceptionally  lucid  and  carry  a 
conviction  which  ordinary  speech  could  never  produce. 


II  .  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN  37 

As  I  proceed  with  my  hypnosis  the  patient  passes 
into  a  condition  in  which  anaesthesia  can  be  produced. 
The  patient  may  be  perfectly  conscious  of  what  the 
hypnotist  is  saying  and  may  remember  it  all  afterwards, 
but  yet  under  suggestion  can  be  made  to  feel  no  pain. 
This  stage  of  hypnosis  introduces  us  to  the  state  of 
mind  of  men  who  have  severe  wounds  inflicted  upon 
them  in  battle,  but  are  not  conscious  of  their  wound, 
nor  of  the  pain  that  it  should  cause,  until  the  excitement 
of  the  battle  is  over  and  their  minds  become  less 
abstracted  from  their  condition.  It  also  explains  the 
ecstasy  of  the  martyr  whose  flesh  is  torn  by  wild  beasts 
or  who  is  burnt  at  the  stake  but  yet  feels  nothing  be- 
cause of  the  blessed  vision  of  angels  or  his  glorified  Lord. 

In  the  next  stage  of  hypnosis  the  patient  passes  into 
a  state  resembling  sleep  ;  not  that  he  loses  conscious- 
ness of  what  is  taking  place  around,  for  he  is  perfectly 
aware  of  what  is  said  to  him  and  of  the  people  about 
him,  but  when  he  is  "  wakened  "  he  forgets  all  that  has 
transpired,  and  feels  that  he  has  merely  been  to  sleep. 

A  stage  further  than  this,  and  the  patient  may,  on 
the  initiative  of  another  or  of  himself,  be  made  to 
speak,  rise  up,  walk  about  the  room,  and  so  behave 
that  a  casual  observer  would  not  realise  that  there  was 
anything  unusual  in  his  behaviour.  Yet  in  his  normal 
waking  state  the  patient  has  not  the  faintest  recollection 
of  what  has  happened.  A  part  of  his  life  has  been 
wiped  out  of  his  normal  memory.^  This  is  a  condition 
analogous  to  that  of  the  spiritualistic  medium,  who, 
however,  produces  this  condition  by  auto-suggestion. 
In  it  the  mind  is  extremely  sensitive  to  suggestions  of 
the  hypnotiser.  It  is  only  reasonable  to  believe  that 
when  this  condition  is  produced  by  auto-suggestion, 
and  the  subject  passes  into  the  trance  with  the  avowed 

'  The  analogous  pathological  condition  is  seen  in  cases  such  as  that  of  a  patient 
of  mine  at  the  present  time  who  remembers  being  in  hospital  in  Mesopotamia,  and 
then  sudilenly  found  himself  at  home  in  Surrey.  He  had  meanwhile  lived  for  six 
months,  visiting  Bombay  and  returning  home  by  Suez,  but  all  this  was  completely 
abolished  from  his  memory. 


38  IMMORTALITY  ii 

intention  of  getting  into  communication  with  a  certain 
person,  his  mind  will  be  particularly  sensitive  to  thoughts 
about  that  person,  whether  these  come  by  direct  com- 
munication with  the  spirit  of  the  person,  as  the  spiritu- 
alist holds,  or  whether  from  some  other  mind,  as  the 
telepathist  considers  more  probable. 

We  see,  then,  that  in  the  phenomena  of  abstraction 
and  trance  we  may  find  conditions  analogous  to  those 
of  hypnosis  whichever  stage  of  hypnosis  we  take.  In 
the  first  stage  there  is  day-dreaming  ;  in  the  second 
the  clear  mental  state  so  conducive  to  prayer,  and  so 
stimulating  to  the  mind  of  the  thinker,  the  seer,  and 
the  visionary  ;  instances  of  the  third  stage  we  have 
in  the  indifference  to  pain  due  to  the  ecstasy  of  the 
martyr  or  the  elation  of  the  soldier  on  the  field  of 
battle  ;  and  finally  the  somnambulism  of  the  medium. 
I  have  some  hesitation  in  thus  pointing  out  the  analogy 
and  identity  of  these  states  of  mind  with  the  stages  of 
hypnosis,  lest  it  should  be  thought  that  I  am  merely 
*'  reducing  "  them  to  hypnotism.  I  would  therefore 
like  it  to  be  understood  that  in  my  own  mind  this 
*'  reduction  "  in  no  way  limits  the  value  of  these  states 
of  mind.  These  are  all  most  valuable,  each  in  its  own 
sphere,  and  the  fact  that  they  are  shown  to  be  natural 
states  of  mind  does  not  make  them  less  valuable  as 
weapons  of  the  spiritual.  My  purpose  is  not  to  show 
that  these  states  of  mind  are  "  only  hypnotism,"  but  to 
show  that  they  can  be  scientifically  induced,  and  in  fact 
are  induced  in  the  various  stages  of  what  we  call,  for 
want  of  a  better  name,  "  Hypnotism." 

There  are,  however,  certain  deductions  of  some 
importance  which  I  may  be  permitted  to  point  out. 

First,  that  the  various  stages  of  hypnosis  can  be 
induced  without  the  aid  of  a  hypnotist,  by  auto- 
suggestion. It  is  obvious  that  moods  of  abstraction 
and  the  anaesthesia  of  the  soldier  are  produced  from 
within  and  not  by  suggestions  from  without.  So  also 
is  the  state  of  mind  of  the   crystal-gazer,  the  Hindu, 


II  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN  39 

and  the  saint  at  prayer.  The  deeper  stages  of  amnesia 
and  somnambulism  are  not  so  often  self-induced,  but 
may  be,  as  in  the  medium  and  the  sleep-walker,  in  the 
former  voluntarily,  in  the  latter  involuntarily,  but  in 
both  without  the  aid  of  another  person. 

In  the  second  place,  let  us  understand  that  a  person 
may  be  in  a  condition  analogous  to  the  early  stages  of 
hypnosis  and  not  be  aware  of  anything  abnormal  taking 
place.  A  patient  recently  told  me  that  I  could  not 
hypnotise  him,  as  others  had  tried  without  success.  I 
induced  him,  however,  to  let  me  try.  I  hypnotised 
him  and  stuck  a  pin  through  a  fold  of  skin  in  his  hand, 
and  continued  my  suggestions  of  healing  his  "  shell- 
shock."  When  he  was  "  wakened  "  he  said  he  had 
been  awake  all  the  time,  had  his  wits  about  him  and 
heard  every  word  I  said.  I  then  pointed  to  his  hand, 
and  to  his  great  surprise  he  saw  the  pin  sticking  through 
his  flesh  without  causing  any  pain.  I  may  add  that  he 
is  now  quite  cured  of  his  headaches,  trembling,  sleep- 
lessness, and  general  nervousness.  But  I  mention  the 
case  to  show  how  in  this  stage,  as  in  the  ecstasy  of 
martyrs  and  wounded  soldiers,  as  well  as  in  crystal- 
gazers,  it  is  quite  possible  to  be  in  such  a  degree  of 
'*  trance  "  and  yet  be  conscious  of  nothing  abnormal. 

Lastly,  I  would  emphasise  the  fact  that  hypnosis  is 
not  an  abnormal  condition  in  the  sense  of  being  patho- 
logical. In  its  early  forms  it  is  exemplified  in  every 
mood  of  abstraction  in  which  we  indulge.  The  later 
and  deeper  stages  are  merely  an  exaggeration  of  this 
mental  abstraction  in  various  degrees. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  hypnotism  carries  with  it  its 
own  dangers,  which  makes  it  necessary  that  only  duly 
qualified  men  should  be  permitted  to  use  it,  but  there 
is  no  branch  of  surgery  or  medicine  of  which  the  same 
cannot  be  said.  Patient  work  and  experience  in  opera- 
tions on  the  mind  as  well  as  on  the  body  teach  one 
what  are  the  dangers  and  how  to  avoid  them.  In 
neither  case,  in  my  opinion,  is  any  one  justified  in  using 


40  IMMORTALITY  ii 

his  skill  for  public  entertainment,  and  perhaps  not  even 
for  experiment.  Personally,  I  make  a  point  of  rarely 
using  hypnotism  except  for  the  cure  of  disease,  not 
because  of  its  dangers — for  I  consider  there  are  none 
to  the  experienced  hypnotist — but  because  it  debases 
the  just  uses  of  a  valuable  therapeutic  agency. 

The  Power  of  the  Mind  to  heal  Bodily 
Disease  by  Mental  Suggestion 

In  the  preceding  paragraphs  I  have  put  forward  the 
rival  claims  of  the  psychologist  and  the  neurologist  to 
explain  the  functions  of  the  mind  :  the  one  claiming 
that  mental  processes  are  the  outcome  of  changes  in  the 
brain  cells,  the  other  maintaining  that  the  mind  is  also 
able  to  initiate  activity  and  control  the  functions  of  the 
body.  We  have  now  to  bring  forward  a  further  con- 
tribution to  the  solution  of  this  problem,  and  can  put 
the  rival  claims  to  the  test  of  successful  treatment.  If 
mental  suggestion,  by  itself,  can  cure  diseases  of  the 
body  we  are  compelled  to  conclude  one  of  two  things  : 
either  that  the  physical  disease  had  its  origin  in  the 
mind  ;  or,  if  the  disease  is  organic,  that  the  mind  has  a 
direct  influence  in  curing  organic  physical  disease.  In 
either  case  the  mind  is  the  dominant  factor  in  causing 
or  curing  bodily  disease. 

Neurasthenia 

Let  us  take  the  commonest  of  all  these  "  borderland  " 
diseases,  namely,  Neurasthenia.  It  is  a  disease  in  which 
both  mental  and  physical  symptoms  are  well  marked. 
The  physical  lassitude,  irritability  of  reflexes,  sluggish- 
ness of  bodily  functions,  constipation,  headache,  back- 
ache, dyspepsia,  fatigue  after  the  slightest  exertion,  and 
a  '*  tired  feeling  "  even  after  a  long  night's  rest,  find  their 
mental  counterpart  in  irritability  of  temper,  indifi^erence 
to  the  joys  and  sorrows  of  life,  brooding,  introspection, 


II  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN  41 

worry,  and  loss  of  the  power  to  concentrate  the  mind. 
Most  of  us  can  claim  relationship  to  some  one  who  was 
"  born  tired  "  and  has  been  tired  ever  since. 

This  disease  of  neurasthenia  is  claimed  both  by  the 
neurologist  and  the  psychologist,  and  is  treated  by  these 
rival  claimants  each  in  his  own  way. 

Its  Origin 

The  neurologist  says  that  the  worry  and  want  of  con- 
centration and  other  symptoms  are  caused  by  physical 
or  chemical  changes  in  the  brain  structure.  "  If  we 
could,"  says  he,  "but  carry  our  investigations  far  enough, 
as  some  day  we  shall,  we  should  discover  that  there  are 
certain  chemical  changes  in  the  brain  cells  to  account 
for  the  worry  and  lassitude."  Huxley,  for  instance, 
suggested  that  every  psychosis  has  its  cause  in  an 
underlying  neurosis.  This  is  at  present  nothing  more 
than  a  hypothesis  :  for  no  one  has  yet  demonstrated 
the  chemical  changes  in  the  brain  cells  that  are  supposed 
to  cause  the  mental  symptoms.  But  it  is,  of  course, 
a  perfectly  tenable  hypothesis  on  which  to  make  an 
investigation.  If  the  absence  of  thyroid  secretion  can 
produce  idiocy,  it  is  within  the  bounds  of  possibility 
that  some  toxin  may  produce  neurasthenia.  The 
thyroid,  the  suprarenal  body,  the  pituitary  body,  high 
blood  pressure,  low  blood  pressure,  have  all  been 
accused  by  physiologists  of  being  the  cause  of  neura- 
sthenia. I  believe  that  the  neurologist  is  sometimes 
correct.  There  is  a  type  of  ''neurasthenia"  due  to 
wasting  diseases  like  cancer  or  an  organically  dis- 
organised digestion.  I  am  convinced,  however,  that 
the  ordinary  type  of  neurasthenia  is  not  produced  in 
this  way,  and  this  opinion  is  backed  by  the  history  of 
its  origin  in  any  particular  case  and  by  success  in  treat- 
ment by  mental  suggestion  alone,  as  I  shall  illustrate 
later. 

The  psychologist    (I    use    the    term    in    its    modern 


42  IMMORTALITY  ii 

scientific,  not  in  its  more  familiar  philosophical  sense) 
looks  at  the  disease  from  the  other  point  of  view.  The 
condition  of  the  mind,  he  says,  produces  the  physical 
symptoms.  The  worry  is  primary  and  the  physical 
lassitude  secondary.  The  psychotherapist,  therefore, 
delves  into  the  mind  of  the  patient,  either  by  question- 
ing him  directly,  or  by  employing  the  method  known 
as  "psycho-analysis,"  to  try  to  discover  the  underlying 
mental  cause.  He  finds  that  in  a  very  large  number 
of  cases  the  disease  originated  soon  after  some  violent 
mental  strain,  usually  associated  with  a  strong  emotional 
element.  Disappointment  in  a  love  affair  is  one  of  the 
most  common  :  grief  at  the  loss  of  wife  or  child  :  the 
fear  of  battle  :  the  shock  of  being  torpedoed  :  anxiety 
over  business  affairs  :  some  wrong  committed  and  the 
consequent  fear  of  exposure.  Every  clergyman  and 
doctor  is  familiar  enough  with  these  conditions,  which 
eat  out  the  soul  and  depress  the  spirit  of  the  victim, 
and  make  life  so  heavy  that  he  considers  it  better  to 
die  than  to  live.  Thus  the  origin  of  the  complaint  in 
itself  suggests  that  the  psychologist  is  right  in  diagnos- 
ing the  disease  as  mental  rather  than  physical. 

Its  Treatment 

The  correctness  of  this  diagnosis  is  further  con- 
firmed by  success  in  treatment  by  mental  suggestion. 
In  the  treatment  of  neurasthenia  the  neurologist,  pro- 
ceeding on  the  assumption  that  the  symptoms  are  caused 
by  physical  changes  in  the  brain,  treats  it  accordingly. 
Ascribing  it  at  one  time  to  a  toxaemia  of  the  gastro- 
intestinal tract,  one  physician  treats  the  patient  with 
intestinal  antiseptics,  laxatives,  and  sour  milk  :  another 
stimulates  the  nervous  system  with  strychnine  or 
soothes  it  with  bromides  :  a  third  puts  the  patient  on 
a  strict  milk  diet,  treats  him  with  massage  and  electricity. 
Yet  another  physician,  diagnosing  the  condition  as 
*'  only  neurasthenia,"  sends  him  off  on  a  sea  voyage  or 


II  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN  43 

to  a  spa.  By  these  means  the  patient  may  or  may  not 
be  cured  ;  usually  he  is  not.  But  if  he  is  cured,  it  has 
still  to  be  proved  by  the  neurologist  that  it  was  not 
the  mental  influences,  such  as  the  personality  of  the 
physician,  or  the  mental  relaxation  of  the  spa,  even 
more  than  the  change  of  air  and  the  sulphur,  that 
produced  the  cure. 

The  psychotherapist  in  his  treatment  approaches  the 
patient  from  an  entirely  different  point  of  view.  Start- 
ing from  the  discovery  that  in  most  cases  the  symptoms 
of  neurasthenia  commenced  after  some  mental  strain, 
he  examines  his  patient  to  find  out  if  he  has  had 
any  such  experience.  Having  discovered  the  supposed 
cause  either  by  questioning  or  by  psycho-analysis,^  he 
begins  to  treat  the  patient  with  mental  suggestion.  Let 
us  suppose  we  have  a  patient  sufi'ering  from  worry,  the 
disease  of  the  age.  The  psychologist  treats  the  patient 
by  verbal  suggestions  alone  and  cures  the  worry.  The 
only  conclusion  we  can  draw  is  that  the  disease  was  the 
result  of  mental  causes  and  not  due  to  a  physical 
defect  :  or,  on  the  other  hand,  if  the  disease  is  said  to 
be  organic,  we  must  conclude  that  the  verbal  suggestion 

*  I  cannot  stay  to  describe  the  methods  of  psycho-analysis  in  this  paper.  Freud's 
method  is  to  diagnose  the  patient's  condition  by  analysing  his  dreams,  which  are 
said  to  represent  the  patient's  suppressed  wishes  expressing  themselves  in  symbolic 
form.  Jung's  method  is  that  of  word-association  tests,  the  patient  being  given 
certain  words  and  asked  to  reply  with  the  first  word  that  comes  to  the  mind.  The 
principle  underlying  this  method  appears  to  be  that  emotion  checks  thought.  In 
this  way  certain  words  {e.g.  the  word  "water"  to  a  patient  who  had  contemplated 
suicide  by  drowning)  arouse  emotions.  The  patient,  theref(.re,  delays  in  giving  the 
reaction  word.  Both  by  the  delay  in  replying  and  also  by  the  nature  of  the  patient's 
reply,  the  emotional  complex  in  the  patient's  mind  is  laid  bare  to  the  physician  even 
when  the  patient  is  unwilling  to  divulge  it  or  has  even  forgotten  it.  Personally,  in 
my  investigations  I  combine  the  word-association  test  with  another  method  suggested 
and  used  by  the  Freudian  school,  viz.  the  "free-association"  method.  Having 
determined  the  words,  e.g.,  "water"  in  the  illustration  above,  to  which  the  patient 
reacts  emotionally,  we  take  these  words  in  rotation  and  ask  the  patient  to  say 
exactly  what  comes  into  his  mind  when  he  thinks  of  the  word  "water"  and  the 
other  words  reacted  to  ;  what  picture  he  sees  before  his  mind,  and  so  on.  One 
finds  that  whichever  word  is  taken  the  thoughts  ultimately  wander  to  the  one 
important  event — the  central  emotional  complex  of  the  mind — the  desire  to  drown 
himself.  I  may  add  that  the  fact  that  Freud  attributes  practically  all  cases  of 
hysteria  to  sexual  causes  has  unfortunately  blinded  many  to  the  real  value  both  of 
his  psychology  and  of  the  methods  of  psycho-analysis.  It  is  quite  possible,  however, 
to  employ  his  methods  without  accepting  his  conclusions. 


44  IMMORTALITY  ii 

of  the  doctor  is  able  to  produce  a  change  in  the  diseased 
brain  cells.  The  neurologist  is  thus  placed  on  the 
horns  of  a  dilemma,  and  is  compelled  to  admit  the 
dominating  influence  of  the  mind  in  either  case. 

In  order  to  illustrate  the  cure  of  such  cases  by  mental 
suggestion,  I  may  be  permitted  to  mention  some  of  my 
own  cases.  The  first  case  treated  was  that  of  a  gentle- 
man in  Edinburgh  who  for  six  years  had  been  suffer- 
ing from  worry,  sleeplessness,  and  haunting  suicidal 
tendencies.  He  came  to  the  conclusion,  as  many  such 
patients  do,  that  he  was  going  mad,  and  fear  of  the 
asylum  made  him  worse.  I  found  that  the  symptoms 
first  arose  when  he  was  lying  ill  with  diphtheria  six 
years  previously,  and  when  in  this  prostrate  condition 
he  received  news  of  the  death  of  his  little  girl.  Assum- 
ing this  to  have  been  the  cause  of  neurasthenia  I  put 
the  patient  into  a  hypnoidal  condition  (in  which,  how- 
ever, he  was  quite  conscious)  ^  and  treated  him  with 
appropriate  suggestions,  pointing  out  to  him  the  cause 
of  the  ailment,  urging  him  to  face  it  and  then  bury  the 
dead  past  :  stimulated  his  faith  in  immortality  and  ex- 
pectation of  reunion  with  his  lost  child  :  impressed  on 
him  the  need  of  abandoning  worry  and  care  :  taught 
him  how  to  be  happy  though  worried,  and  prevailed  on 
him  to  abandon  his  anxieties  and  to  renew  his  strength 
by  resting  his  soul  in  the  Everlasting  Arms.  He  was 
cured  after  two  sittings  of  about  half  an  hour  each,  and 
when  I  last  saw  him,  some  eight  years  after  the  treat- 
ment, he  had  had  no  return  of  the  symptoms.  I  would 
not  have  it  believed  that  all  cases  of  neurasthenia  are  so 
easily  cured,  but  bring  forward  the  illustration  to  show 
what  effect  purely  mental  suggestion  can  have  on  this 
class  of  disease  which  the  neurologist  attributes  to 
changes  in  brain  cells,  but  which  the  psychologist 
rightly  regards  as  mentally  produced.     So  rapid  a  cure 

^  I  may  here  repeat  in  parenthesis  that  for  therapeutic  purposes  complete  un- 
consciousness in  hypnotism  is  quite  unnecessary,  the  only  condition  required  being 
the  suppression  of  the  critical  faculty,  so  that  the  mind  may  be  the  more  powerfully 
concentrated  on  the  suggestions  to  a  degree  impossible  in  ordinary  conversation. 


II  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN 


45 


can  only  be  accounted  for  on  the  hypothesis  that  the 
cause  was  mental. 

In  the  course  of  writing  the  account  of  this  case  I 
have  had  a  visit  from  an  officer  recently  returned  from 
the  front,  who  was  formerly  a  patient  of  mine  for 
psychotherapy.  A  year  ago  he  was  a  clerk  in  a 
shipping  office.  He  came  to  me  with  the  symptoms 
of  physical  exhaustion,  anaemia,  and  sleeplessness.  In 
addition  he  had  delusions  that  anything  he  touched,  and 
particularly  his  pen,  was  covered  with  microbes.  Bits 
of  paper  about  the  street  and  about  the  house  filled 
him  with  the  same  fear  of  contamination.  It  will  be 
readily  understood  that  such  delusions  completely  in- 
capacitated him  for  his  work,  for  nothing  could  per- 
suade him  to  write  a  letter,  and  he  was  compelled  to 
abandon  his  work  suffering  from  a  nervous  break- 
down. Were  the  mental  symptoms  in  his  case  due  to 
some  toxin  affecting  the  brain  ?  or,  on  the  other  hand, 
were  the  physical  symptoms  caused  by  mental  dis- 
turbance .?  The  test  of  successful  treatment  will 
furnish  us  with  an  answer.  An  attempt  to  discover 
the  cause  of  the  condition  by  questioning  failed  to 
elicit  any  satisfactory  reason  for  the  disease.  I  there- 
fore applied  the  method  of  "  psycho-analysis."  By  this 
method  I  discovered  the  true  cause  of  his  malady  ;  it 
turned  out,  as  is  so  often  the  case,  to  be  a  suppressed 
anxiety  of  a  strongly  emotional  character,  the  nature 
of  which  I  do  not  feel  justified  in  making  public.  In 
this  case  the  mere  realisation  by  the  patient  of  the 
latent  cause,  once  it  was  discovered,  was  practically 
sufficient  to  cure  the  condition,  on  the  same  principle 
that  the  best  cure  for  a  "  tune  running  in  the  head  "  is 
to  sing  it  aloud,  and  the  only  cure  for  a  hidden  sin  is 
to  confess  it.  I  saw  this  officer  a  year  ago  a  candidate 
for  the  asylum  :  I  see  him  now  having  been  through 
the  fighting  of  the  "  Devil's  Wood "  in  which  one 
third  of  his  battalion  was  laid  low,  but  far  from  being 
afflicted  with  the  nerve  shock  one  would  have  expected 


46  IMMORTALITY  ii 

he  has  won  for  himself  a  commission,  and  is  one  of  the 
few  men  I  have  met  who  genuinely  desires  to  return  to 
the  trenches.  These  two  cases  are  sufficient  to  prove 
that  the  primary  lesion  was  not  to  be  sought  for  in  the 
brain  cells  but  in  the  mind,  and  illustrate  the  power 
which  the  mind  is  capable  of  exercising  not  only  over 
mental  but  over  physical  conditions. 

''Shell  Shock'' 

The  experience  of  the  war  has  given  to  medical 
science  another  group  of  interesting  examples  of 
"  borderland  "  disease,  namely  those  grouped  together 
as  "  shell  shock."  ^  I  have  at  the  present  time  under 
my  care  men  of  the  Royal  Navy  who  are  suffering 
from  blindness,  loss  of  speech,  loss  of  control  over 
limbs  and  body  which  results  in  a  condition  of  per- 
petual tremor  even  during  sleep,  and  other  physical 
nervous  disorders,  all  of  which  are  produced  by  "  shell 
shock."  In  these  cases  the  affection  of  the  nervous 
system  is  of  a  functional  and  not  an  organic  nature, 
and  exhibits  no  changes  such  as  the  microscope  or  test- 
tube  can  discover.  Examined  by  all  the  known  tests 
the  affected  nerve  is  in  no  sense  different  from  any 
normal  nerve.  This  may,  of  course,  be  due  to  the 
imperfection  of  our  laboratory  methods,  but  both  the 
origin  and  the  treatment  of  these  interesting  cases 
encourage  us  in  the  belief  that  "  shell  shock "  is 
primarily  a  mental  rather  than  a  nervous  disease.  One 
or  two  cases  I  quote.  One  patient  of  mine,  J.  D., 
was  on  board  a  drifter  when  it  was  attacked  by  a  sub- 
marine. He  was  at  the  gun  and  eagerly  gazing  across 
the  waves  at  the  submarine.  This  slight  strain  on  the 
eyes,  coupled  with  the  great  emotional  strain  on  the 
nervous  system,  produced  a  blindness  by  the  next 
morning  which  was  almost  complete.  Another  patient 
1  am  still  treating  was  occupied  one  Sunday  in  dragging 

1   I  use  the  term  in  the  very  widest  sense,  as  practically  equivalent  to  war  stress. 


II  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN  47 

bodies  out  of  the  debris  of  an  explosion.  Next  morn- 
ing he  woke  up  to  find  his  arm  paralysed.  This 
paralysis,  like  the  blindness  of  the  other  patient,  is 
only  of  a  hysterical  type.  I  have  obtained  some  move- 
ment of  his  fingers  under  hypnosis,  and  still  hope 
to  cure  him  entirely.  A  young  Belgian  I  saw  had  a 
bullet  wound  in  his  arm  and  lost  the  use  of  the  fore- 
arm. The  surgeon,  therefore,  cut  down  to  examine 
the  nerves  which  he  supposed  to  have  been  injured. 
He  found  no  evidence  of  injury,  the  wound  being  only 
a  flesh  wound.  The  lad  was  treated  by  the  physician 
in  charge  with  suggestion,  in  this  case  without  hypnosis, 
and  when  I  saw  him  he  was  well  on  the  way  to  re- 
covery. I  have  read  of  another  case,  one  of  many  that 
have  appeared  in  the  public  press,  of  a  soldier  who  was 
struck  dumb  in  battle  but  was  suddenly  cured  on 
being  kissed  by  a  young  lady  visiting  at  his  bedside  ! 

Perhaps  I  may  dwell  with  a  little   more  detail  on 
one  or  two  of  my  cases.     One'  of  my  patients  was  in 

H.M.S.  when    she    was   blown    up    by    a    mine. 

When  I  saw  him  about  sixteen  months  after  the  event 
he  was  in  a  condition  of  extreme  terror  ;  day  and  night 
he  had  the  sight  of  the  sinking  ship  with  all  its  horrors 
in  his  mind.  He  had  no  control  over  his  emotions, 
was  "  blubbering "  continually,  and  was  shaking  all 
over  from  head  to  foot.  If  a  plate  fell  in  the  ward, 
he  would  literally  jump  out  of  bed  and  hide  under 
it.  After  the  first  treatment  by  mental  suggestion 
his  tremors  were  greatly  lessened  :  after  the  second 
he  could  control  his  feelings  and  could  discuss  the 
sinking  of  the  ship  without  emotion  ;  his  headaches  had 
also  disappeared  :  and  after  further  treatment,  he  was 
so  far  cured  that  he  expressed  his  desire  to  undergo 
an  operation  on  his  ear  and  throat,  the  very  thought 
of  which  had  previously  produced  in  him  a  spasm  of 
terror.  Another  patient,  J.  S.,  aged  42,  was  in  the 
Dardanelles,  on  a  mine-sweeper  which  was  frequently 
shelled.      When  I  saw  him  his  hair  had  turned  white 


48  IMMORTALITY  ii 

with  the  strain  of  work  and  constant  exposure  to 
danger.  He  had  bad  nightmares,  and  tremors,  especi- 
ally of  the  limbs,  which  were  in  a  continual  state  of 
spasticity.  He  proved  an  excellent  subject  for  hypnosis, 
becoming  a  somnambulist.  He  has  now  lost  his 
spasticity,  and  his  tremors  have  disappeared.  At  the 
time  of  writing  he  no  longer  dreams,  the  nightmares 
have  disappeared,  and  he  is  well  enough  to  return 
home  to  his  work.  A  very  interesting  case  was  that 
of  E.  C,  aged  37,  officers'  steward,  who  came  com- 
plaining of  neuritis.  On  examination,  however,  I  found 
that  he  was  completely  anaesthetic  from  head  to  foot, 
so  that  I  could  stick  pins  into  him  anywhere  over  the 
body.  He  won  for  himself  in  the  ward  the  nick- 
name of  the  "living  pin-cushion."  I  could  not  help 
regretting  that  he  did  not  require  to  have  his  appendix 
removed,  for  the  operation  could  have  been  done 
painlessly  without  further  anaesthetic  !  We  have  in 
this  man  a  case  of  "  hysterical "  anaesthesia,  produced, 
as  I  interpret  it,  as  an  expression  of  his  protective 
instinct  in  order  to  ward  off  the  "  slings  of  fortune." 
In  his  desire  to  avoid  hurt  of  any  kind,  he  has 
quite  unconsciously  become  anaesthetic.  His  case  is 
very  interesting  as  another  instance  of  the  power  of 
the  mind  to  cancel  the  incoming  sensations.  I  have 
managed  to  dispel  his  neuritis  and  cure  his  shakiness, 
by  mental  suggestion,  but,  up  to  the  present,  even 
under  deep  hypnosis,  I  have  not  managed  to  restore 
his  sensation  of  pain,  and  the  conditions  of  service 
prevent  my  proceeding  further  with  the  case. 

The  only  conclusion  we  can  draw  from  these  cases 
is  that  "  shell  shock,"  in  spite  of  all  its  physical 
symptoms  of  paralysis,  etc.,  is  primarily  a  mental  rather 
than  a  nervous  disease.  Psychologists  are  therefore  at 
the  present  time  seeking  for  the  explanation  of  these 
lesions.  The  matter  is  still  under  investigation,  but  the 
following  view  seems  most  in  keeping  with  what  is 
known  of  such  conditions. 


II  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN  49 

Those  acquainted  with  psychotherapy  are  familiar 
with  the  theory  that  neuroses  and  psychoses  can  be 
caused  by  suppressed  emotion.  When  a  woman  is 
oppressed  with  grief  even  her  next-door  neighbour 
knows  that  it  is  much  better  for  her  to  "  have  a  good 
cry  "  than  to  suppress  her  grief.  Suppressed  emotions 
are  like  suppressed  steam,  and  often  lead  to  disaster  in 
insanity  and  the  asylum.  An  old  lady  I  know  lost  her 
husband  by  death,  and  at  the  time  showed  no  grief 
at  the  loss,  but  two  days  afterwards  began  to  have 
delusions  that  the  rest  of  the  family  were  going  to  be 
taken  from  her,  and  subsequently  she  had  to  be  put 
under  restraint.  The  theologian  knows  that  unless 
the  sin  is  confessed  it  produces  a  depressed  and  brood- 
ing disposition  like  that  of  Cain  in  the  traditional 
story,  who  seems  to  have  started  with  a  melancholia 
and  ended  with  the  aimless,  restless  wandering  of 
mania.  When  the  sin  is  confessed  the  sinner  at  once 
feels  himself  a  new  man,  the  sky  clears,  and  the  spirit 
is  liberated  because  the  suppressed  emotion  has  been  let 
loose.  Most  of  us  have  had  the  uncomfortable  feeling 
of  having  "  something  on  our  mind  "  which  makes  us 
worry  and  feel  restless.  As  soon,  however,  as  we  look 
for  the  cause  and  bring  it  into  consciousness,  the  rest- 
lessness disappears.  This  principle  we  apply  to  shell 
shock.  The  soldier  on  the  field  of  battle,  the  sailor 
mine-sweeping  at  sea,  are  constantly  in  a  state  of  extreme 
tension.  The  natural  expression  of  fear  is  to  turn  and 
run  in  flight.  These  men  suppress  that  natural 
impulse  :  nothing  will  induce  them  to  give  way  to 
fear  :  grim  determination  is  written  upon  their  faces. 
But  their  very  courage  is  a  danger  to  them.  Gun- 
powder is  the  more  dangerous  when  it  is  packed  tight 
and  closely  confined  ;  so,  too,  with  the  instinctive 
emotions.  The  soldier  succeeds  in  suppressing  his  fear, 
but  that  very  suppression  makes  an  explosion  the  more 
dangerous.  A  sudden  bursting  of  a  high  explosive 
stuns  him  for  a  moment,  and  deprives  him  of  his  power 

E 


50  IMMORTALITY  ii 

of  control  ;  and  in  that  moment  the  pent-up  emotion 
bursts  forth.  When  he  comes  to  himself  he  finds  that 
he  has  completely  lost  the  reins,  his  grip  over  himself 
has  gone,  his  self-mastery  has  given  way,  and  he  falls  a 
victim  to  these  symptoms  of  paralysis,  or  of  general 
tremors,  characteristic  of  the  cases  of  "shell  shock." 
It  is  thus  often  the  bravest  men,  those  who  have  been 
most  successful  in  mastering  and  suppressing  their  fear, 
that  fall  victims  to  this  disease.  It  is  not  maintained 
that  all  cases  of  "  shell  shock "  can  be  explained  in 
this  way  :  many  cases  may  be  due  to  a  complex  of 
causes.  But  it  seems  clear  that  the  above  is  the  cause 
in  many  cases  of  the  disease,  and  a  contributory  cause 
in  others. 

I  think  these  cases  I  have  cited  will  be  sufficient  to 
convince  the  reader  of  the  extraordinary  power  of  the 
mind  over  the  body,  and  to  compel  us  to  the  conclusion 
that,  however  much  the  body  and  its  sensations  may 
modify  mental  conditions,  the  mind  is  the  predominant 
factor  in  the  life  of  the  individual. 

Christian  Science 

In  the  popular  mind  the  subject  of  Mental  Healing 
is  so  commonly  confused  with  the  claims  of  Christian 
Science  that  a  few  words  on  this  subject  will  not  be 
out  of  place.  That  many  of  the  cures  of  Christian 
Scientists  are  authentic  I  have  no  doubt.  Convinced 
as  I  am  of  the  power  of  mind  over  body,  I  should  be 
surprised  if  it  were  not  the  case.  But  I  am  equally  con- 
vinced that  the  philosophy  or  "religion"  on  which  it 
is  based  is  false.  I  am  antecedently  inclined  to  believe 
the  lady  who  told  me  that  she  had  suffered  from 
nervousness  and  was  troubled  with  aches  and  pains 
shifting  from  place  to  place  about  her  body,  and  that 
she  was  cured  by  believing  in  the  Christian  Science 
doctrine  that  "  God  was  All,  and  that,  pain  and  evil 
being  illusion,  she  must  be  healthy  and  have  no  pains." 


II  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN  51 

But  when  a  man  tells  me  that  he  broke  his  leg,  and 
after  treatment  by  Christian  Science  was  immediately 
cured,  his  statement  is  so  entirely  contrary  to  all  that 
is  scientifically  known  about  the  body,  that  it  would 
require  overwhelming  evidence  to  convince  me  that, 
assuming  the  person  to  be  telling  the  truth,  this  was 
not  a  mistake  in  diagnosis.  Even  if  he  tells  me  that 
the  fracture  was  diagnosed  as  such  by  a  medical  man 
I  should  still  be  unconvinced,  for  even  the  best  of 
surgeons  make  mistakes  on  such  matters.  To  take 
another  illustration.  If  a  man's  arm  is  paralysed  by 
"  shell  shock,"  in  which  there  is  no  lesion  of  the  nerve- 
trunk,  but  where  the  function  alone  is  at  fault  owing 
to  some  blockage,  I  can  conceive  that  a  discharge  of 
energy  from  the  mind,  whether  by  the  religious  emotion 
fomented  by  Christian  Science,  or  by  Suggestion  under 
Hypnosis,  may  break  down  the  block,  and  so  suddenly 
and  immediately  restore  the  function.  But  when  a 
patient  comes  to  me  with  his  nerve-trunk  severed  by  a 
bullet,  I  do  not  believe  that  any  amount  of  suggestion 
or  of  faith  will  mend  the  lesion,  and  I  assure  him  that 
it  will  be  at  least  some  months  before  his  arm  regains 
its  power  and  sensation.  This  is  the  radical  distinction 
between  the  Christian  Scientist  and  the  Psychotherapist  : 
it  is  based  on  a  fundamental  difference  between  an 
organic  lesion  like  a  ruptured  nerve,  and  a  functional 
lesion  such  as  we  find  in  the  cases  of  patients  suffering 
from  "  shell  shock  "  to  which  I  have  already  referred. 

At  the  same  time,  I  am  quite  prepared  to  admit  that 
Mental  Healing  may  very  favourably  influence  even 
organic  lesions.  We  have  already  shown  what  effect 
mental  suggestion  may  have  on  blood  supply.  But 
the  speedy  restoration  of  bodily  tissue  is  very  largely 
dependent  on  blood  supply.  It  is  quite  obvious,  there- 
fore, that  the  process  of  healing  can  be  accelerated  in  a 
marked  degree  by  increasing  the  blood  supply  under 
mental  suggestion.  Again,  healing  is  greatly  aided 
by  the  abolition  of  pain,  so  that,  if  the  mind  can  abolish 


52  IMMORTALITY  n 

pain,  it  will  materially  aid  in  curing  organic  disease. 
Pain  is  a  very  valuable  aid  in  the  detection  of  physical 
maladies  :  it  waves  the  red  flag  to  warn  us  that 
disease  is  about  to  make  an  onslaught  on  our  bodies, 
so  that  we,  being  forewarned,  may  also  be  forearmed. 
But  its  proper  task  is  then  complete.  If  it  continues 
to  wave  its  flag  and  inflict  constant  and  severe  suffering, 
it  becomes  a  positive  danger.  Following  the  sugges- 
tions of  other  hypnotists  I  have  performed  this  interest- 
ing experiment  :  I  inflicted  two  burns  on  the  arms  of 
a  hypnotised  subject.  In  the  one  case  I  suggested  that 
the  pain  should  disappear,  and  it  did  so  ;  in  the  other 
I  allowed  the  burn  to  be  normally  painful.  It  was 
found  that  the  painless  burn  healed  with  much  greater 
rapidity  than  the  other.  This  clearly  indicates  that, 
after  a  certain  point,  pain  acts  as  a  deterrent  to  rapid 
healing  ;  and  the  abolition  of  pain  by  suggestion  may 
therefore  aid  considerably  in  the  cure  even  of  organic 
diseases.  But  in  both  illustrations,  whether  in  the 
regulation  of  the  blood  supply,  or  in  the  abolition  of 
pain,  the  efi^ect  that  the  mind  has  in  healing  the  body 
is  an  indirect  one,  and  has  no  relation  to  such  a  case 
as  the  sudden  knitting  of  broken  bones  which  the 
credulity  of  the  Christian  Scientist  permits  him  to 
believe  possible. 

Now,  what  is  the  significance  of  Mental  Healing  ? 
It  is  that  by  the  influence  of  the  spoken  word  we  have 
been  able  to  drive  away  physical  pain,  control  physical 
movements  which  have  become  uncontrolled,  bring 
back  power  to  limbs  afllicted  with  palsy.  Physical 
symptoms  have  been  cured  by  psychical  causes,  thus 
demonstrating  the  mastery  of  the  mind  over  the  bodv. 
In  other  words,  we  have  in  the  mind  an  energy  which 
acts  not  only  in  its  own  sphere  of  mental  life,  but  flows 
over  and  floods  the  arid  clods  of  the  physical  plains  to 
produce  health  and  gladness. 


II  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN  53 


Telepathy 

Having  pointed  out  that  we  have  real  evidence  that 
the  mind  can  dominate  the  body  and  all  its  functions, 
let  us  now  consider  certain  evidence  which  suggests 
that  the  mind  can  act  without  using  the  ordinary 
channels  of  bodily  sense. 

Just  as  the  pursuit  of  Astrology  brought  to  light 
facts  which  laid  the  foundation  of  the  science  of 
Astronomy,  so  the  pursuit  of  Spiritualism  has  brought 
to  light  facts  of  thought-transference  or  Telepathy, 
These  have  already  given  rise  to  a  certain  amount  of 
scientific  investigation,  and  will  be  more  thoroughly 
investigated  in  the  future. 

Only  the  briefest  indication  of  their  nature  can  be 
given  in  this  place  ;  but  some  further  illustration  will 
be  found  in  Essay  VII.  of  this  volume.  Probably  the 
subject  first  forced  itself  to  the  front  owing  to  the 
frequently  recorded  cases  of  "  wraiths "  appearing  at 
the  time  of  death.  Many  of  us  have  personal  experi- 
ence of  having  the  thought  of  some  person  obtruded 
on  our  mind,  and  have  discovered  later  that  this 
person  died  at  that  moment,  or  passed  through  some 
extraordinary  experience.  The  image  of  the  person  is 
flashed  across  our  mind,  perhaps  visualised.  I  should 
hold  myself  that,  if  visualised,  the  appearance  is  a 
hallucination,  the  result  of  a  subjective  impression. 
This  states  very  concisely  the  difference  between  the 
theory  of  Telepathy  and  that  of  Spiritualism. 

The  Spiritualist  seems  to  believe  that  the  spirit  of 
the  departed  is  in  the  room  and  manifests  himself  in 
some  actual  form,  but  a  more  reasonable  theory  is 
that  the  impression  is  purely  subjective,  and  due  to 
Telepathy  from  the  dying  person.  It  is  to  be  noted 
that  in  several  of  the  best-authenticated  of  these  stories 
of  apparitions  of  the  dying,  the  death  takes  place  in 
India  or  Africa,  and  the  recipient  is  in  England.      In 


54  IMMORTALITY  ii 

the  Proceedings  of  the  S.P.R.  many  instances  of  exactly 
this  class  are  recorded.^ 

The  following  account  by  Dr.  Leonard  Guthrie, 
relates  the  experience  of  a  credible  witness,  E.  W.  M., 
a  distinguished  scientist  and  F.R.S.  In  his  own  words 
he  writes  ^  : — 

"  When  I  lived  in  Canada,  the  following  case 
occurred  :  an  Englishman  and  an  American  clubbed 
together  to  try  to  reach  the  Klondyke  goldfield  by 
the  overland  trail,  i.e.^  by  going  due  north  from  the 
prairies,  instead  of  following  the  usual  course  of  cross- 
ing by  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway  to  Vancouver,  then 
taking  steamer  up  the  coast  to  Sitka,  and  crossing  back 
over  the  mountains  via  White  Horse  Pass.  After  the 
pair  had  passed  on  their  journey  what  the  American 
judged  to  be  the  outposts  of  civilisation,  he  shot  the 
Englishman  while  he  lay  asleep,  tried  to  destroy  the 
body  by  burning  it,  rifled  his  baggage,  taking  every- 
thing of  value,  and  returned.  When  he  was  questioned 
as  to  what  had  become  of  his  companion,  he  replied 
that  he  (the  American)  had  become  discouraged  and 
had  given  up  the  expedition,  but  that  the  Englishman 
had  pushed  on.  But  there  was  an  encampment  of 
Indians  close  to  the  spot  where  the  crime  had  been 
committed.  The  old  chief  saw  two  men  come  north 
and  encamp  in  the  night,  he  heard  a  shot  and  saw  one 
man  go  south.  He  went  to  the  camp,  saw  the  body, 
and  informed  the  nearest  post  of  N.W.  Mounted 
Police.  They  trailed  the  murderer,  and  arrested  him 
before  he  could  escape  across  the  U.S.  border.  He 
was  brought  to  Regina.  Meanwhile,  the  brother  of 
the  murdered  man,  in  England,  had  a  dream  in  which 
he  saw  his  absent  brother  lying  dead  and  bloody  on 
the  ground.  He  came  down  next  morning  very  de- 
pressed, told  his  dream,  and  announced   his  intention 

1  For  a  case  that  has  just  come  under  my  own  notice,  cf.  p.  74,  Note  B. 
-  Extract  from  "  Dreams  and   their  Interpretation,"  by  Sir  Robert  Armstrong- 
Jones,  M.D.,  F.R.C.P.,  F.R.C.S.,  in  The  Practitioner. 


II  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN 

of  going  straight  out  to  Canada  to  see  if  anything  had 
happened  to  his  brother.  He  arrived  out  as  the  trial 
of  the  murderer  was  progressing.  He  identified  several 
articles  in  the  possession  of  the  murderer  as  the  property  of 
his  late  brother.     The  murderer  was  hanged  at  Regina." 

Such  instances  are  comparatively  common,  and  if 
they  do  not  convince  the  sceptic  they  at  least  afford 
sufficient  ground  for  scientific  investigation.  There 
must  be  some  cause  for  these  phenomena,  and  if  they 
are  not  due  to  telepathy  then  it  is  just  as  necessary  to 
explain  in  some  other  way  the  psychology  of  such 
mental  aberrations. 

In  a  series  of  seances  arranged  by  the  Society  for 
Psychical  Research,  with  Mrs.  Piper  as  medium,  the 
investigators  sought  to  obtain  an  account  of  a  certain 
conversation  which  took  place  between  Mrs.  Sidgwick 
and  Mr.  F.  W.  H.  Myers,  some  time  before  his  death. 
This  conversation  was  known  to  none  except  to  the  two 
participants.  In  her  trance  Mrs.  Piper  claimed  to  have 
access  to  "  Myers,"  and  an  attempt  was  made  to  induce 
the  spirit  of  "  Myers "  to  reproduce  the  conversation 
through  Mrs.  Piper,  As  long  as  Mrs.  Sidgwick  was 
absent  and  did  not  come  into  contact  with  Mrs.  Piper, 
the  medium  failed  to  reproduce  the  conversation. 
When,  however,  Mrs.  Sidgwick  came  into  contact  with 
Mrs.  Piper,  there  was  a  remarkable,  though  not  perfectly 
accurate,  account  given  of  the  conversation.  That  is 
to  say,  it  was  the  proximity  of  Mrs.  Sidgwick,  who 
knew  the  conversation,  that  made  the  diflference.  Mrs. 
Sidgwick,  therefore,  concludes,  and  rightly  so  in  my 
opinion,  that  the  medium  became  possessed  of  the 
information,  not  from  the  spirit  of  "  Myers,"  but  by 
mental  transference  from  Mrs.  Sidgwick  herself.  In 
other  words,  though  it  did  not  prove  communication 
with  the  spirit  world  it  did  afford  important  evidence 
of  telepathy. 

The  subject  needs  patient  and  thorough  investiga- 
tion.    Are  we  to  assume  that  there  is  a  psychic  ether 


56  IMMORTALITY  ri 

pervading  space  in  the  same  way  as  that  material  ether 
which  the  scientist  assumes  to  be  omnipresent  ;  or  are 
we  to  believe  in  the  theory  of  "  brain  waves,"  by  which 
the  activity  of  one  brain  is  transferred  to  another  brain, 
as  the  air  conveys  waves  of  sound  from  one  man's 
voice  to  the  ear  of  another  man  ;  or,  as  a  third 
possibility,  is  the  mind  altogether  free  from  the  limita- 
tions of  time  and  space,  and  does  it  thus  possess  the 
power  of  presenting  itself  to  two  persons  at  once, 
possibly  at  remote  parts  of  the  earth  ? 

On  the  one  hand,  experiments  in  telepathy,  e.g., 
those  conducted  at  Brighton,  and  quoted  by  Podmore 
in  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  have  shown  that  more 
successes  are  obtained  when  the  person  giving  and  the 
person  receiving  the  message  are  in  the  same  room, 
which  suggests  that  distance  does  have  an  influence  on 
the  transmission  of  thought.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
fact  that  messages  have  been  transferred  from  one 
hemisphere  to  another,  from  Canada  to  England,  sug- 
gests that  the  process  of  transference  is  independent  of 
space  and  time  and  that  it  is  concerned,  therefore,  with 
mind  itself.  It  is  difficult  to  conceive  how  brain  waves, 
the  very  name  of  which  suggests  a  material  medium, 
can  overcome  the  obstacle  of  continents  and  penetrate 
a  brain  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth,  and  to  do  so 
with  sufficient  force  to  rise  into  consciousness. 

Whatever  the  explanation,  however,  it  is  safe  to  say 
that  in  telepathy  we  have  an  indication  that  the  mind 
is  much  less  circumscribed  by  the  limitations  of  the 
material  body  than  is  ordinarily  supposed. 

III.  Study  of  the  Biological  Development  of 
THE  Mind  (a)  in  the  Individual  and  {b) 
IN  the  Race,  pointing  to  the  Gradual 
Ascendancy  of  the  Mind  over   the  Body 

We  now  pass  to  another  line  of  argument.  In  the 
preceding  section  we   have   been  examining  the  mind 


II  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN  57 

of  man  as  we  know  it  in  its  present  state  of  evolution. 
This  investigation  has  shown  us  the  mind  dominating 
the  body,  having  the  power  to  abolish  its  sensations,  to 
cure  its  ills  and,  liberating  itself,  in  a  sense,  from  the 
brain,  to  communicate  with  other  minds  at  a  distance 
from  it. 

We  have  now  to  look  at  the  mind  biologically,  as  it 
passes  from  its  low  and  humble  origin  to  attain  that 
position  of  mastery  which  it  now  possesses.  This 
study  will  convince  us  that  in  its  earlier  stages  the 
function  of  the  mind  is  largely  passive  in  the  sense  that 
it  has  always  to  await  the  impact  of  some  external 
physical  stimulus,  and  has  no  power  of  initiation  in 
itself :  but  in  its  later  stages  the  mind  is  found  to 
acquire  more  and  more  the  power  of  initiating  action, 
and  seems  to  be  on  the  way  to  becoming  master  of  itself 
and  of  its  own  destinies. 

This  development  I  shall  trace  both  in  the  individual 
and  in  the  race.  In  reality  the  development  is  analo- 
gous in  both  cases,  for  the  individual  passes  through  the 
stages  of  evolution  that  the  race  has  passed  through, 
from  the  speck  of  protoplasm  from  which  each  of 
us  originated  to  our  present  state  of  growth  and 
intelligence. 

(^a)  In  the  Individual 

First,  then,  I  shall  trace  briefly  the  evolution  of  vision 
and  of  the  emotions  in  the  individual  in  order  to  draw 
attention  to  that  point  in  evolution  where  the  physical 
surrenders  its  rights  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  mind. 

The  development  of  Vision  furnishes  us  with  a»  ex- 
cellent example  of  this  change. 

The  new-born  child  possesses  the  whole  apparatus 
of  vision — cornea,  lens,  retina,  optic  nerve  and  tracts, 
and  centres  of  vision  in  the  brain.  But  the  child 
does  not  see,  and  has  as  yet  no  sense  of  vision.  For 
the    development    of   that    sense    external    stimuli    are 


58  IMMORTALITY  ii 

necessary :  the  child  must  open  its  eyes  and  let  the  rays 
from  objects  around,  from  its  toys,  its  mother,  or  the 
lamp,  fall  upon  its  retina  and  be  conveyed  to  its  brain, 
where  they  produce  an  appropriate  sensation.  These 
external  stimuli,  we  repeat,  are  necessary  to  sight  : 
without  them  there  would  be  no  sense  of  vision.  In 
short,  the  mental  representation  is  dependent  upon 
physical  sensations. 

But  this  does  not  remain  so  always.  Look  at  the 
child  a  few  years  later.  The  sensations  have  meanwhile 
been  stored  as  memories,  combined  to  acquire  meanings, 
associated  for  the  building  up  of  visions  that  "eye  hath 
not  seen."  This  power  of  calling  up  new  visions  we 
call  "  imagination  "  :  it  is  quite  independent  of  external 
stimulus.  Indeed  imagination  is  more  vivid  when  these 
stimuli  are  cut  off.  Consequently  we  shut  our  eyes 
when  we  wish  to  image  anything,  and  seers  receive 
their  visions  in  the  dark  watches  of  the  night. 

In  the  highest  examples  we  have  the  genius  of  the 
artist,  poet,  and  philosopher,  each  of  whom  expresses 
in  his  own  plastic  material  of  words  or  of  pigment 
the  creations  of  his  imagination.  The  balance  has  now 
turned  :  mental  representation  is  altogether  independent 
of  physical  stimuli,  and  the  mind  can  initiate  its  own 
objects  of  imagination.  Indeed  we  may  go  a  step 
further  and  we  find  that  imagination  can  become  so 
vivid  that  it  deceives  the  senses  into  believing  that  the 
imaged  objects  are  actually  present.  This  we  term 
hallucination.  The  functions  have  been  reversed  and 
the  mind  is  now  creating  the  sensations.  The  develop- 
ment of  vision,  then,  shows  us  the  transference  of 
initia^ve  from  the  periphery,  namely  the  bodily  sensa- 
tion, to  the  mind  at  the  centre. 

The  Emotions. — The  second  illustration  we  take  is 
that  of  the  emotions.  Readers  of  James's  Psychology 
are  familiar  with  the  theory  there  enunciated,  that  the 
emotions  are  the  result  of  bodily  movement. 

"  The  bodily  changes  follow  directly  the  perception 


II  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN  59 

of  the  exciting  fact,  and  our  feeling  of  the  same  changes 
as  they  occur  is  the  emotion.  Common  sense  says  we 
lose  our  fortune,  are  sorry  and  weep  :  we  meet  a  bear, 
are  frightened  and  run  :  we  are  insulted  by  a  rival,  are 
angry  and  strike."  In  contrast  to  that  James  holds 
that  "  we  feel  sorry  because  we  cry,  angry  because  we 
strike,  afraid  because  we  tremble." 

In  this  account  of  the  emotions  we  have  the  direct 
assertion  that  the  mental  states  of  emotion  are  dependent 
on  physical  movements,  and  therefore  subordinated  to 
them.  We  need  have  no  hesitation  in  accepting  this 
theory,  provided  that  it  is  intended  to  account  only  for 
the  origin  and  early  development  of  the  emotions. 
Darwin,  in  his  fascinating  book  on  the  Expression 
of  the  Emotions^  has  shown  the  physiological  purpose 
of  emotional  expressions,  which  seems  to  prove  their 
physiological  origin.  The  scowl  expressive  of  anger  is 
the  vestige  of  the  setting  of  the  brow  assumed  by  an 
animal  before  charging  a  hostile  animal.  The  sneer 
which  exhibits  the  canine  teeth  is  all  that  remains  of 
the  fierce  threat  of  the  wolf  to  devour.  I  have  myself 
often  seen  South  Sea  Islanders  express  disgust  of  others 
by  turning  their  back  on  them  and  lifting  one  leg  in 
the  manner  of  the  dog.  We  are  therefore  quite 
justified  in  admitting  the  truth  of  this  evidence,  and  in 
accepting  the  theory  that  the  emotions  originated  in 
physical  movements  which  serve  a  physiological  purpose, 
so  long  as  it  relates  to  the  origin  and  development,  and 
not  to  the  present  state,  of  our  emotions.  These  move- 
ments, originally  expressing  physiological  functions, 
have  now  assumed  a  new  meaning,  having  attained  a 
mental  significance  which  has  obliterated  the  traces  of 
their  physiological  origin.  In  the  development  of  the 
emotions  there  comes  the  time,  corresponding  to  that 
we  have  noted  in  the  case  of  vision,  when  the  move- 
ment no  longer  creates  the  emotion,  though  it  may 
suggest  it,  but  is  itself  produced  by  the  emotion.  The 
balance  of  power  has  changed  from  the  physical  to  the 


6o  IMMORTALITY  ii 

mental,  so  that  the  physical  actions  which  originally 
produced  the  emotions  (as  James  has  told  us)  are  now 
merely  the  expressions  of  those  emotions.  This  con- 
clusion is  in  keeping  with  the  judgment  of  common 
sense  and  of  introspection.  It  is  embodied  in  ordinary 
language  ;  the  word  e-motion  suggests  a  motion  from 
within  outward,  a  movement  originated  in  the  mind 
and  expressing  itself  in  physical  activity.  Thus  we 
now  knit  our  brow  because  we  are  angry  ;  we-  show  our 
teeth  in  order  to  express  a  threat  ;  smile  because  we 
feel  pleasure  ;  and  run  away  because  we  are  frightened. 
In  short,  while  mental  emotion  originated  in  physical 
movements,  the  balance  has  now  turned  and  the  mind 
now  initiates  these  movements  and  uses  them  as  modes 
of  expression. 

The  process  which  we  have  illustrated  in  the  indi- 
vidual, by  which  vision  and  emotion  have  liberated 
themselves  from  the  domination  of  the  body,  is  also 
found  to  be  at  work  in  the  biological  evolution  of  the 
race.  Here,  too,  we  can  trace  the  process  by  which 
the  mind  grows  from  being  a  puny  parasite  of  the  body 
to  become  its  master  and  lord. 

(^b)  In  the  Race 

In  tracing  the  biological  development  of  the  mind 
in  the  race  I  cannot,  in  the  space  at  my  disposal,  even 
mention  all  the  varied  stages  through  which  it  passes. 
It  is  possible  only  to  touch  on  the  more  important  ones, 
but  these  will  suffice  for  our  argument. 

My  purpose  in  outlining  these  stages  is  to  trace  the 
gradually  increasing  ascendancy  of  the  mind  from  its 
humble  origin,  a  weakling,  dependent  for  its  every 
movement  on  the  body,  until  it  attains  the  full  vigour 
of  mindhood  which  subdues  the  parent  from  which  it 
sprang,  and  makes  the  body  its  slave. 

In  the  earliest  forms  of  animal  life,  and  even  in 
some  forms  of  plant  life,  we  find  what  appears  to  be 


II  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN  6i 

evidence  of  mental  activity,  in  that  their  actions  seem 
to  exhibit  an  intelligent  purpose.  When  the  sensitive 
plant  is  touched,  its  leaves  curl  up  and  droop,  as  though 
to  withdraw  themselves  from  danger.  The  Venus  Fly- 
trap, which  closes  its  petals  over  the  fly  and  traps  it, 
appears  to  possess  more  wit  and  cunning  than  its  hapless 
victim.  I'he  single-celled  amoeba,  the  earliest  form  of 
animal  life,  puts  forth  its  pseudopodia  or  prolongations 
and,  encircling  a  morsel  of  food,  seizes  and  absorbs  it. 
AJl  these  organisms,  although  devoid  of  any  nervous 
system,  perform  movements  which  so  simulate  purposive 
actions  that  the  casual  observer  is  apt  to  jump  to  the 
conclusion  that  they  are  endowed  with  mental  power. 

But  are  we  justified  in  concluding  that  these  early 
forms  of  life  exhibit  mental  power  :  can  we  say  that 
they  possess  intelligence  ? 

From  the  philosophical  point  of  view  it  is  maintained 
that  the  fact  that  their  actions  are  directed  towards 
useful  ends,  suggests  that  a  mind  must  be  at  work. 
The  philosopher  will  argue  that  these  actions  cannot  be 
explained  except  by  postulating  a  guiding  and  directing 
force  which  is  essentially  intelligent  and  purposive. 
This,  however,  does  not  mean  that  these  creatures  have 
minds  in  the  individual  sense,  nor  that  they  possess  the 
power  of  initiation  with  themselves  as  centre.  I,  per- 
sonally, agree  with  the  views  of  the  philosopher,  and 
believe  in  the  existence  of  the  "  cosmic  mind  "  which 
dwells  in  all  living  things  and  works  out  its  purposes 
in  them  ;  but,  as  scientists,  it  is  better  that  we  should 
not  accept  this  as  a  postulate  and  argue  from  it  as  fact, 
until  we  find  some  scientific  and  empirical  evidence  of 
the  presence  of  mind  in  these  low  forms  of  life.  Looked 
at  from  the  scientific  point  of  view  there  are  several 
facts  which  make  us  hesitate  to  affirm  that  these  primi- 
tive forms  of  life  have  minds.  In  the  first  place,  their 
actions  are  of  a  mechanical  nature  whereby  we  can 
predict  with  certainty  what  their  movements  will  be. 
If  you  touch  the  Venus  Fly-trap  it  will  close  its  petals, 


62  IMMORTALITY  ii 

quite  irrespective  of  whether  the  stimulus  is  a  fly  which 
it  can  eat  or  a  bit  of  wood.  In  other  words,  it  acts 
without  discrimination  :  its  action  is  purely  mechanical. 
Similarly,  in  an  animal  like  the  mollusc,  action  is 
purely  reflex,  so  that  when  you  apply  any  irritant  you 
can  always  predict  with  certainty  that  it  will  respond  in 
a  particular  way.  In  the  case  of  the  amoeba,  the 
mechanical  nature  of  its  movements  have  been  demon- 
strated in  an  experiment  devised  by  Professor  Schafer, 
which  reproduces  these  movements  in  a  globule  of  olive- 
oil  under  conditions  which  exclude  the  possibility  of 
mental  interference.^ 

We  cannot,  therefore,  claim  that  as  yet  we  have 
conclusive  proof  of  a  mind  in  these  early  forms  of  life, 
except  perhaps  in  the  vague  sense  of  a  mind  general  and 
diffuse,  pervading  all  living  things,  and  expressing  its 
power  and  purpose  through  them.  We  often  hear  it 
said  that  a  musician  "  makes  his  violin  speak,"  his 
piano  "  live."  They  are  not  living,  but  they  are  the 
vehicle  of  a  mind  behind.  In  this  sense  we  can  perhaps 
say  that  these  primitive  creatures  possess  a  mind.  But 
they  possess  a  mind  only  in  a  passive  sense  ;  they 
contain  it  rather  than  possess  it.^ 

Let  us  pass  to  a  higher  stage  in  the  development  ot 
mind,  in  which  we  find  a  store  of  nerve  energy. 

If  we  destroy  the  brain  of  a  frog  and  then  touch  its 
belly  with  acid,  it  will  lift  its  leg  and  make  movements 
to  scratch  off  the  acid.  This  is  a  purely  reflex  action, 
and  acts  with  that  mechanical  certainty  which  seems  to 
exclude  the  working  of  an  intelligence.     But  further, 

^  "  Take  on  a  glass  rod  a  drop  of  ordinary  olive-oil  which  has  been  coloured 
with  Scharlach  R.,  and  place  it  gently  on  the  surface  of  a  i  per  cent  solution  of 
sodium  bicarbonate."  The  result  observed  is  that  the  olive-oil  sends  out  prolonga- 
tions, and  performs  movements  almost  identical  with  those  of  the  amoeba.  This, 
however,  is  purely  a  phenomenon  of  surface  tension. 

-  It  is  only  right  to  state  that,  whereas  I  have  maintained  the  generally  accepted 
view  of  scientific  men  on  this  question,  there  is  a  growing  opinion  among  scientists, 
that  even  in  these  very  early  forms  of  life  there  are  the  manifestations  of  mental 
activity  and  intelligence.  Were  such  a  view  to  become  accepted  I  need  hardly  point 
out  that  the  general  conclusion  I  am  arguing  for  would  be  further  strengthened,  but 
I  prefer  not  to  assume  more  than  the  evidence  would  be  generally  admitted  to  prove. 


II  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN  63 

let  the  leg  be  restrained  from  movement,  and  the  brain- 
less creature  will  lift  the  other  leg  to  perform  the  same 
service.  This  looks,  at  first  sight,  as  if  the  animal, 
realising  that  one  action  was  frustrated,  devised  another 
action  to  perform  the  same  service,  and,  in  doing  so, 
showed  purposive  intelligence.  This,  however,  would 
be  going  beyond  our  premisses.  He  would  be  a  bold 
man  who  would  affirm  that  a  brainless  frog  has  a  mind. 
This  experiment,  however,  does  take  us  one  stage 
higher.  In  order  to  perform  this  action,  reflex  as  it  is, 
we  must  assume  that  the  creature  has  a  store  of  nerve 
energy.  When  this  source  of  energy  finds  the  normal 
channel  of  outflow  closed,  it  expends  itself  by  passing 
down  another  :  denied  access  to  one  leg,  it  discharges 
its  force  down  the  motor  nerve  of  the  other  leg  which 
moves  towards  the  irritated  point  on  the  belly.  We 
have  here,  then,  a  new  factor  which  distinguishes  this 
"  reflex "  frog  from  the  amoeba  and  lower  forms  of 
life,  namely,  its  power  to  store  up  nerve  energy.  It 
has  not,  however,  the  power  possessed  by  the  normal 
frog  and  all  higher  animals  of  determining  at  will  into 
which  channel  that  store  of  nerve  force  shall  be 
directed. 

The  next  stage  is  the  all-important  one,  from  our 
point  of  view,  since  it  introduces  the  psychic  element, 
and  presents  us  with  phenomena  which  can  be  explained 
only  in  terms  of  mental  life.  The  organism  now 
develops  along  two  paths  which  are  associated  together. 
.  (i)  On  the  sensory  side,  the  organism  now  possesses 
the  power  of  recognising  the  sensations  which  come  to 
it — in  other  words,  it  develops  Cotisciousness. 

(2)  On  the  motor  side,  the  organism  has  the  power 
of  directing  its  reserve  store  of  nerve  energy  in  any 
direction  in  accordance  with  its  own  desires  towards 
carrying  out  its  purposes  and  fulfilling  its  aims — in  other 
words,  it  develops  a  fVill. 

In  both  Consciousness  and  Will  we  have  phenomena 
which  the  laws  of  Physiology  entirely  fail  to  explain, 


64  IMMORTALITY  ii 

and    which    Psychology    alone    can    even    attempt    to 
elucidate. 

(i)  Consciousness  is  the  sensation  of  psychic  states. 
When  we  speak  of  being  *'  conscious  "  of  any  sensation 
we  mean  that  by  some  means  we  become  "  aware  "  of  it. 
Let  us  realise  that  there  are  millions  of  sensations  which 
never  rise  to  consciousness  ;  impressions  that  do  not 
impress  our  mind  sufficiently  to  make  us  "  aware  "  of 
them.  Such,  for  instance,  are  the  "  sensations "  of 
normal  digestion,  breathing,  or  the  secretion  of  glands. 
These  functions  are  always  sending  impressions  up  to 
the  higher  centres,  but,  under  normal  conditions,  they 
do  not  produce  consciousness  of  their  movements.  They 
become  conscious  only  when  these  organs  are  disturbed 
and  their  functions  upset,  in  which  case  we  may  be  very 
painfully  "  aware "  of  them.  But  let  us  pause  for  a 
moment.  What  do  we  mean  when  we  say  that  we  are 
"  aware  "  ?  What  is  it  to  be  "  aware  "  ^  Who  is  it 
that  is  conscious  }  We  have,  in  using  these  terms, 
taken  a  great  stride  :  we  have,  in  fact,  passed  from 
physiological  to  psychical  terms.  In  using  such  words  as 
*'  aware  "  we  are  using  terms  for  which  we  can  find  no 
physiological  substitute.  We  have,  in  fact,  entered  the 
realm  of  *'  mind,"  a  sphere  into  which  physiology  can- 
not enter  and  in  which  it  cannot  live.  Like  the  fish 
which  cannot  breathe  in  the  open  air,  physiology  pants 
and  expires  in  its  efforts  to  follow  the  mind  into  the 
psychic  region  ;  the  atmosphere  is  too  rarefied  :  thought 
is  too  ethereal  to  be  grasped  by  it.  In  short,  physiology 
has  to  abandon  this  field  to  psychology. 

In  the  earlier  stages  physiology  may,  with  some 
reason,  claim  to  explain  the  phenomena  presented.  It 
can  trace  the  stimulus  as  it  passes  round  the  reflex  arc, 
up  the  sensory  nerve,  across  the  synapse  or  junction, 
and  down  the  motor  nerve.  This  acts  with  the  same 
mechanical  certainty  as  the  touching  of  an  electric  button 
at  one  end  of  a  wire  produces  the  ringing  of  a  bell  at 
the  other  end.     But  when  we  come  to  consciousness. 


II  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN  65 

physiology  fails  to  satisfy  us,  because  we  are  dealing 
with  something  that  is  different  in  kind  from  nerve 
energy.  We  may  make  use  of  our  last  illustration 
(remembering  that  it  is  only  an  analogy,  and  at  best 
only  explains  the  mechanism  of  consciousness)  to  make 
clear  this  difference.  An  ordinary  current  of  electricity 
produces  heat  in  a  wire — such  is  the  normal  mechanism 
of  nerve  energy  as  illustrated  in  reflex  action.  But 
let  this  current  pass  through  a  filament  of  exceptional 
refinement,  and  be  raised  to  a  greater  intensity,  and 
the  heat  will  be  transformed  into  light.  Consciousness 
is  thus  a  phenomena  of  intensification  :  it  is  produced 
when  our  sensations  are  raised  to  a  sufficiently  high  pitch 
of  tension.  It  is  due  to  mental  friction  :  to  the  effort 
to  cut  a  new  channel  through  the  brain.  Heat  and 
light  may  both  be  produced  by  the  transmission  of  a 
current  of  electricity  along  an  electric  wire  :  they  may, 
from  the  physical  point  of  view,  differ  only  in  the 
length  of  their  waves  and  in  velocity.  But  the  essential 
feature  of  our  analogy,  imperfect  as  it  is,  is  that  in  its 
resultant  expression  light  is  a  different  form  of  energy 
from  heat^  and  therefore  stimulates  an  entirely  different 
system  of  nerve-endings  in  our  bodies.  Consciousness 
is  thus  a  different  form  of  energy  from  nerve  energy, 
though  it  may  have  arisen  out  of  it  ;  it  is,  in  fact, 
psychic  energy,  which  it  is  impossible  to  describe  in 
terms  of  the  physical. 

This  dramatic  leap  from  the  physiological  to  the 
psychical  is  the  most  important  factor  in  the  evolution 
of  mind.  It  is  the  decisive  factor  which  once  and  for 
all  turns  the  balance  and  establishes  the  supremacy  of 
the  mind  over  the  body.  This  is  that  reversal  of 
power  which  we  have  already  illustrated  in  the  faculty 
of  vision  and  in  the  emotions,  both  of  which  were 
born  of  sensory  impulses  but  grew  to  become  psychic 
powers  by  throwing  off  the  yoke  of  the  flesh. 

Henceforward  the  mind  begins  to  live  a  life  inde- 
pendent of  the  body.     The  tulip  springs  from  a  bulb, 

F 


66  IMMORTALITY  ii 

and  in  its  early  stages  derives  all  its  sustenance  from  the 
store  of  food  in  the  bulb.  But  when  its  leaves  are  well 
established,  and  it  has  exhausted  its  store  of  nourish- 
ment, it  begins  to  breathe  in  strength  and  force  from 
the  sunlight  and  air  around,  without  which  it  would 
fade  and  wither  and  fail  to  produce  the  perfect  flower. 
So  mind  can  come  to  perfection  only  by  turning  to  the 
light,  and  freely  exercising  its  intellectual  and  aesthetic 
functions.  The  mind  arises  from  the  body  and  its 
sensations,  but  only  in  the  sense  that  the  dragon-fly 
springs  from  the  grub  which  lives  in  the  mud  of  a 
stagnant  pool ;  its  origin  is  humble  but  its  life  in  the 
sunlight  is  a  whirl  of  coloured  brilliance  and  wanton 
liberty.  This  new  form  of  energy  which  we  call  con- 
sciousness has  a  similar  freedom  and  autonomy ;  it 
originated  in  physical  sensations  of  the  body,  but  has 
taken  wing,  breathes  the  airs  of  the  ethical  blue,  and  is 
nourished  by  spiritual  food.  Thus  the  mind  has  now  as 
little  in  common  with  the  sensations  of  the  body  from 
which  it  sprang,  as  this  fiery,  dazzling  creature  has  with 
the  slime-covered  grub. 

Let  us,  then,  note  the  significance  of  this  change. 
The  mind  has  now  the  power  to  choose  its  own  food, 
because  it  knows  what  it  is  getting.  This  truth  we 
have  illustrated  in  the  individual  by  the  power  possessed 
by  the  mind  to  refuse  sensations  ofi^ered  to  it  and  to 
produce  a  psychic  blindness  and  psychic  deafness.  The 
results  of  this  are  very  far-reaching  from  the  point  of 
view  of  our  mental  and  spiritual  development.  "Take 
heed  what  (or  how)  ye  hear,"  said  the  Master,  realising 
that  it  is  in  the  power  of  man  to  respond  or  not  to  the 
appeals  of  sense  made  to  him.  There  are  other  ways 
of  resisting  the  voices  of  the  sirens  than  the  crude 
method  of  stuffing  the  ears  with  wax  ;  the  mind 
may  refuse  to  listen.  St.  Paul  follows  up  the  injunc- 
tion of  the  Master  by  encouraging  us  to  think  only  of 
"  whatsoever  things  are  beautiful  and  of  good  report," 
realising  that  the  mind  is  capable  of  seeking  the  best 


II  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN  67 

things,  by  which   alone   it   can    develop   and   fulfil    its 
highest  life. 

(2)  The  Development  of  the  Will.  —  Hitherto  we 
have  dealt  with  the  new  stage  in  the  biology  of  the 
mind  in  so  far  as  it  affects  the  sensory  side  in  the 
development  of  consciousness.  We  have  now  to 
study  it  on  the  motor  side,  and  to  discuss  the  power 
of  the  mind  to  react  as  it  wills  to  sensations  in  order 
either  to  annul  or  to  reinforce  any  tendencies  to 
action.  Let  us  compare  this  stage  with  the  foregoing. 
In  the  case  of  reflex  action,  as  in  the  occipitated  frog, 
we  could  always  predict  that  the  animal  would  perform 
certain  movements  in  response  to  certain  irritation. 
With  the  advent  of  will  we  cannot  so  predict  action. 
The  normal  frog,  for  instance,  if  touched  with  acid  may 
scratch  itself,  may  shrink  into  itself,  or  may  jump  away, 
and  we  can  never  say  which  it  will  choose  to  do.  Again, 
in  the  "  reflex "  animal  the  greater  the  stimulus  the 
greater  is  the  reaction  :  the  stronger  the  acid  the  more 
violently  will  the  frog  scratch  :  the  more  a  child  is 
annoyed  the  more  vigorously  does  it  cry.  But  the  adult 
man  or  woman  in  whom  the  mind  is  fully  developed  can 
either  inhibit  or  reinforce  the  tendency  to  any  particular 
action. 

A  man  may  be  beaten  with  many  stripes,  and  not 
raise  a  finger  in  protest  ;  for  he  is  exercising  another 
power  than  that  of  reflex  action,  the  power  of  mental 
inhibition  or  self-restraint.  On  the  other  hand,  incoming 
sensations  may  be  greatly  reinforced  hy  the  mind,  produc- 
ing a  more  violent  motor  reaction.  No  casual  observer, 
for  instance,  would  have  understood  why,  in  a  certain 
episode,  the  dangling  of  a  bit  of  string  by  a  'bus  con- 
ductor should  have  produced  such  wild  fury  in  the 
driver  of  the  'bus  behind.  The  grim  humour  of  the 
situation  was,  however,  revealed  and  the  tury  accounted 
for,  when  the  conductor  explained  his  little  joke — the 
driver's  father  was  being  hanged  that  morning.  The 
stimulus  of  a  bit  of  string  was  quite  insufficient  in  itself 


68  IMMORTALITY  ii 

to  produce  the  reaction  ;  but  it  was  reinforced  by  the 
mind  which  grasped  the  sinister  meaning,  and  let  loose 
stores  of  energy  which  turned  the  driver's  face  purple 
and  the  air  blue. 

These  illustrations  will  convince  us  that  the  adult 
mind  does  not  react  mechanically  nor  proportionately 
to  any  incoming  sensation,  but  has  the  power  either  to 
react  vigorously  or  to  exert  an  inhibitory  action  in 
response  to  it.  This  implies  that  there  must  be  a  store 
of  energy,  a  reservoir  of  nerve  force,  accumulated  some- 
where in  the  brain,  which  the  mind  can  draw  upon  and 
can  either  withhold  or  expend  in  response  to  any  given 
stimulus.  This  power  we  call  the  tVill.  The  will  is  the 
power  the  mind  possesses  of  directing  as  it  desires  the 
store  of  nerve  energy  to  the  accomplishment  of  its  own 
ends.  Contrast  this  with  the  lower  forms  of  animal  life 
already  illustrated,  which  have  a  store  of  nerve  energy, 
but  which  have  not  the  power  to  direct  that  energy  into 
any  channel  they  will,  but  must  necessarily  discharge  it 
down  the  most  open  or  frequently  used  channel.  For 
will  two  things  are  essential,  both  of  which  we  have  in 
the  developed  mind — a  store  of  nerve  energy  and  the 
capacity  to  direct  that  energy  into  any  desired  channel. 

There  may,  however,  be  those  who  are  still  sceptical 
of  the  existence  of  a  definite  power  we  call  the  will,  and 
who  consider  that  the  discharge  of  nerve  energy  to  which 
we  give  that  name  can  be  accounted  for  by  the  purely 
mechanical  workings  of  the  law  of  association.  In  order 
to  illustrate  the  difference  between  the  law  of  association 
and  the  working  of  will,  I  would  recommend  such  to 
try  the  simple  experiment  devised  by  Dr.  McDougall 
of  Oxford.  Take  a  series  of  nonsense  syllables,  read 
them  over  a  number  of  times  in  a  casual,  indifferent 
manner,  and  record  how  many  repetitions  are  required 
to  memorise  accurately  the  whole  series.  In  this  case 
the  memorising  is  brought  about  purely  by  the  associa- 
tion of  one  syllable  with  another,  the  one  mechanically 
calling  up  the  other.     Now  repeat  the  experiment  with 


ir  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN  69 

another  series  of  nonsense  syllables,  but  this  time,  instead 
of  reading  them  indifferently,  "  set  your  mind  "  to  it, 
directing  your  energies  towards  your  object.  It  may 
surprise  you  to  find  that  it  now  requires  only  some  ten 
or  twelve  repetitions.  Obviously,  in  this  latter  case, 
some  new  force  has  been  added  which  is  something 
diff^erent,  and  far  more  potent  than  mere  association, 
and  produces  a  very  different  result.  This  additional 
force  is  the  will. 

We  may  now  summarise  the  stages  of  the  evolution 
of  the  mind.  There  are,  of  course,  countless  other 
intermediate  stages,  but  it  is  sufficient  for  us  to  have 
mentioned  the  most  important : — 

( 1 )  In  the  first  stage,  that  illustrated  in  the  amoeba, 
we  have  as  yet  no  conclusive  proof  of  the  presence  of  a 
mind,  except  perhaps  in  the  sense  of  a  pervading  mind, 
passive  and  impersonal,  a  part  of  the  cosmic  mind 
working  in  and  through  the  primitive  creature. 

(2)  In  the  second  stage,  we  have  the  animals  which 
possess  a  nervous  system,  whose  actions  are  controlled 
by  the  flow  of  nerve  energy  or  neurokyme. 

(3)  In  the  third  stage,  we  have  those  animals  in 
which  incoming  sensations  have  developed  a  centre  for 
sensations,  the  central  nervous  system,  where  nerve 
energy  is  stored,  and  from  which  it  is  discharged 
by  regularly  constituted  channels,  and  in  response  to 
specially  strong  stimuli. 

(4)  In  the  final  stage,  sensations  are  raised  to  a  high 
pitch  of  intensity,  and  in  some  unknown  way  produce  a 
psychic  form  of  energy  we  call  consciousness.  In  this 
stage,  also,  the  organism  not  only  has  a  store  of  nerve 
energy,  but  possesses  the  power  of  directing  that  energy 
at  will  into  any  channel  which  leads  to  the  fulfilment  of 
its  conscious  purposes. 

In  the  will,  as  in  consciousness,  we  have  a  new 
element  in  the  evolution  of  the  life,  the  development 
of  a  force  which  can  dominate  brain  processes.  It  is 
an    autonomy,    controlling    the    nervous    system,  and 


70 


IMMORTALITY  ii 


regulating  the  functions  of  the  mind.  It  is  a  psychic 
force  which  from  its  place  of  authority  can  direct  the 
stores  of  nerve  force,  now  into  this  channel,  and  now 
into  that,  by  a  power  of  choice  which  no  physiological 
law,  and,  indeed,  no  psychological  law,  can  explain  or 
predict. 

The  body  thus  appears  to  have  produced  what  it  can 
no  longer  control,  nor  even  understand  ;  and  evolution 
has  brought  forth  the  flower  and  glory  of  its  age-long 
development. 

Beyond  this  stage  of  mental  evolution  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  go,  because  we  have  now  crossed  the  great  gulf 
between  the  physiological  and  the  psychical,  and  have 
set  our  feet  firmly  on  that  shore  where  the  higher 
faculties  of  the  mind,  reason  and  abstract  thought,  are 
subsequently  developed.  These  higher  powers  serve 
only  to  point  us  still  further  along  the  road  that 
delivers  us  from  bondage  to  the  flesh,  and  leads  us  to 
anticipate  the  complete  emancipation  of  the  mind  from 
the  body.  The  mind  may  henceforth  become  indifferent 
to  the  disasters  which  in  the  course  of  nature  are  bound 
to  overtake  the  body,  and  may  hope  to  survive  its 
destruction  and  decay — and  perhaps  thereafter  to  find 
or  create  for  itself  a  "  spiritual  body "  adapted  to  a 
difi^erent  sphere  of  existence  and  to  other  modes  of 
life.^ 

This  brings  to  an  end  our  examination,  from  the 
scientific  point  of  view,  of  the  relation  of  body  and 
mind  with  special  reference  to  the  possibility  of  the  mind 
surviving  the  destruction  of  the  body.  The  survey  is 
necessarily  incomplete.  We  have,  for  instance,  omitted 
altogether  the  question  as  to  the  nature  of  matter.  An 
increasing  number  of  scientists  are  devoting  themselves 
to  this  problem,  and  they  tell  us  that  matter  is  not  that 
solid,  indestructible  thing  we  take  it  to  be,  but  consists 
of  ions  vibrating  at  an  extraordinary  velocity.      It  will 

1  Cf.  Essay  III.  pp.  103  ff. 


II  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN  71 

be  extremely  dramatic  if  science  proves  that  matter 
is  after  all  only  a  function  of  some  invisible  force. 
This  and  other  similar  subjects  I  have  been  compelled 
to  omit  from  this  short  study. 

I  do  not  pretend  that  the  evidence  I  have  brought 
forward  amounts  to  proof  that  the  mind  survives  the 
destruction  of  the  body.  I  have  merely  attempted  to 
show,  in  the  first  place,  that  it  is  credible,  and  not  con- 
tradictory to  the  teaching  of  science  as  we  know  it  at 
the  present  day  ;  and,  secondly,  that  it  is  not  only  not 
contradictory  to  science,  but  that  science  points  to 
this  supremacy  and  Hberation  of  the  mind  as  the  goal 
towards  which  nature  is  working.  It  is  only  reasonable 
to  assume  that  the  process  which  has  been  at  work  during 
the  whole  of  biological  history  will  be  continued  to  its 
logical  conclusion. 

For  the  present,  therefore,  so  far  as  science  is  con- 
cerned, life  after  the  grave  is  not  a  proved  fact,  but 
the  evidence  is  sufficient  to  justify  faith  in  it.  Such 
"faith"  is  often  looked  upon  as  a  specifically  religious 
function,  and  suggests  to  the  casual  observer  a  process 
of  "swallowing"  what  is  incredible.  Far  from  that 
being  the  case,  faith  is  a  function  which  the  scientist 
employs  constantly  and  without  which  he  could  not 
conduct  his  investigations,  x  "  Faith  "  is  merely  the  re- 
ligious counterpart  of  the  "hypothesis"  of  the  scientist. 
He  is  bound  to  assume  as  a  hypothesis  the  law  of 
gravity,  and  other  mighty  assumptions  which  he  has 
not  proved  ;  but,  having  assumed  any  such  hypo- 
thesis, he  finds  that  the  facts  of  the  universe  as  he 
knows  them  fit  so  perfectly  into  it  that  he  is  con- 
firmed in  his  belief  in  the  legitimacy  of  his  hypothesis. 
Precisely  the  same  process  is  employed  by  the  religious 
man  who  assumes  the  truth  of  belief  in  God  and  in 
immortal  life.  Having  accepted  these  hypotheses,  he 
finds  that  they  explain  so  many  of  the  deep  problems  of 
the  world  that  his  faith  in  them  is  confirmed.  Since, 
therefore,    the   facts   of  science,  which   we   have   been 


72  IMMORTALITY  ii 

studying,  seem  rather  to  confirm  than  to  contradict  the 
hypothesis  of  a  hfe  beyond  death,  the  religious  man  is 
acting  only  reasonably  when  he  accepts  the  belief  as  an 
article  of  his  faith. 

I  have,  in  the  preceding  discussion,  tried  to  keep 
within  the  bounds  of  scientific  fact.  It  remains  with 
other  contributors  to  this  book  to  discuss  these  problems 
from  the  religious  and  philosophical  point  of  view.  I 
may  be  permitted,  however,  to  trespass  on  their  domain 
to  the  extent  of  suggesting  the  broad  conclusions  to 
which  I  feel  myself  drawn.  We  have  looked  upon  the 
emancipation  of  the  soul  from  the  body  as  a  process  of 
evolution.  This  emancipation  we  may  therefore  assume 
to  be  the  purpose  of  our  existence  on  this  earth.  Before 
our  birth  we  were  undifferentiated  "  soul  "  ;  we  were 
parts  of  the  '*  cosmic  mind,"  we  were  as  water  drawn 
in  a  pitcher  from  the  "  mind  pool."  Our  destiny  is  to 
grow  personalities  out  of  the  raw  material  with  which 
we  began  life.  In  every  stage  of  evolution  it  is  only 
the  few  who  progress,  the  many  remain  unevolved. 
So  it  may  be  in  the  passage  from  the  physical  to  the 
spiritual. 

Readers  of  Ibsen's  Peer  Gynt  will  remember  that 
when  the  prodigal  returned  from  his  wanderings  he 
encountered  the  "  Voice  in  the  Darkness."  The  Voice 
informed  him  in  reply  to  his  enquiries  that  he  had  never 
developed  an  individuality,  his  life  had  been  too  pithless 
to  entitle  him  to  any  reward,  for  he  was  neither  good 
enough  for  Heaven,  nor  bad  enough  for  Hell.  His  fate 
would  therefore  be  to  be  boiled  down  again  in  the  same 
melting-pot  as  Tom,  Dick,  and  Hal,  and  so  form  raw 
material  again.  Such  may  be  the  destiny  of  those  who 
never  pass  upwards.  They  have  never  grown  per- 
sonalities ;  they  have  not  even  become  individuals  in 
the  highest  sense  ;  they  have,  therefore,  failed  in  the 
main  purpose  of  their  lives.  They  were  intended  to 
gain  the  mastery  over  their  senses  and  develop  minds 
capable  of  dominating  the  body.     Instead,  even  to  the 


II  THE  MIND  AND  THE  BRAIN  73 

end,  they  are  completely  under  the  mastery  of  their 
senses,  in  which  they  find  their  only  joy.  These  pro- 
fane persons,  like  Esau,  sell  their  birthright  for  a  mess 
of  pottage.  What  will  happen  to  them  ?  Since  they 
have  chosen  not  to  develop  that  "  soul "  with  which 
they  were  endowed  into  personalities  in  touch  with  the 
eternal,  their  end  may  be  to  pass  back  again  into  the 
melting-pot  to  be  boiled  down  with  the  rest  (for  the 
Master  of  the  Universe  wastes  nothing)  :  they  merely 
return  to  that  nonentity  from  which  they  came  :  from 
them  may  be  taken  away  even  that  individuality  which 
they  have. 

But  there  are  those,  too,  who  fulfil  their  destiny. 
They,  too,  were  drawn  out  of  the  "  mind  pool  "  before 
their  individual  life  began,  and  were  thrown  into  this 
material  world  to  turn  the  soul  substance  into  a  living 
personality  realising  and  fulfilling  the  purpose  of  their 
Maker.  This  is  nature's  way  always  :  to  transform 
the  simple  and  undifferentiated  into  the  complex  and 
highly  developed.  What  are  the  essential  conditions 
by  which  the  personality  passes  from  the  terrestrial  to 
the  immortal  life  .?  These  will  be  differently  stated 
according  to  the  philosophy,  creed,  or  Church  to  which 
we  adhere.  In  all  true  religions  and  philosophies 
there  is  the  turning  away  from  evil  and  wrong  to  all 
that  is  right  and  good  in  the  belief  that  it  is  only  truth 
and  beauty  and  love  that  are  real  and  eternal. 
Herein  the  intuition  of  the  seer  goes  beyond  the  con- 
clusions of  empirical  science,  but  it  in  no  wise  con- 
tradicts them,  for  it  is  only  travelling  a  little  further 
along  the  same  road. 

We  may  conclude,  then,  that  before  our  lives  began 
we  were  each  parts  of  the  "  world  soul  "  without 
separate  consciousness,  and  without  distinct  individu- 
ality, that  our  lives  were  offspring  of  the  universal  life 
and  that  by  interaction  with  other  lives,  with  material 
things,  and  with  God,  we  are  capable  of  developing 
souls  free  and  undetermined,  and  capable  of  immortal 


74  IMMORTALITY  ii 

life.  Our  destiny  is,  that  from  the  undeveloped  soul 
with  which  we  started  we  shall  become  ever  more 
differentiated  and  more  spiritual,  in  touch  with  the 
Infinite,  knowing  and  loving  God.  The  world  soul 
from  which  we  are  derived  came  from  God,  and  we 
go  to  God  who  is  our  Eternal  Home,  Meanwhile 
it  is  our  business  on  earth  so  to  live  that  we  shall 
prepare  ourselves  for  the  time  when  body  and  brain 
decay  but 

When  that  which  drew  from  out  the  boundless  deep 
Turns  again  home. 


ADDITIONAL  NOTES 

A  (cf.  p.  32).  Since  this  Essay  has  been  in  type  I  have  myself 
succeeded  in  producing  blisters  by  suggestion  alone  on  three 
diiFerent  occasions — the  first  time  unexpectedly,  the  other  times 
under  strictly  scientific  conditions,  the  experiment  being  witnessed 
by  another  medical  man,  besides  the  hypnotist,  and  the  patient  being 
closely  watched  to  avoid  any  possibility  of  fraud. 

B  (cf.  p.  54).  On  the  morning  of  August  14  a  patient  of  mine 
announced  to  his  ward  doctor  that  he  was  very  troubled  by  a 
dream  that  his  brother  was  killed  in  France.  On  Tuesday, 
August  21,  he  told  me  he  had  again  dreamed  this  and  was  very 
troubled.  On  August  24  I  received  word  from  the  patient's  father 
asking  me  to  break  the  news  to  the  son  that  his  brother  had  died  as 
the  result  of  wounds  received  in  action  on  August  14.  His  last 
letter  home,  written  when  he  was  quite  well,  was  dated  August  13. 
I  may  add  that  when  the  patient  told  me  of  his  dream  on  the  21st 
another  surgeon  was  present,  and  I  said  to  this  surgeon,  as  well  as 
to  another  who  was  not  present,  that  we  would  take  note  of  it  and 
see  if  it  corresponded  with  fact.  The  doctor  of  the  ward  also 
confirms  the  story  of  the  dream  a  week  previously,  so  that  the  whole 
account  rests  on  very  firm  evidence.  I  have  the  signatures  of  these 
surgeons  as  witnesses. 


in 

THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD 

BY 

BURNETT  HILLMAN  STREETER 

CANON     RESIDENTIARY     OF     HEREFORD 

FELLOW    OF    QJLTEEN's    COLLEGE,    OXFORD 

EDITOR    OF    "foundations"    AND    "CONCERNING    PRAYER " 

AUTHOR    OF    "restatement    AND    REUNION  " 


75 


SYNOPSIS 

PAGE 

The  Proof  of  Immortality      .  .  .  .  .78 

The  intuitions  of  great  men. 

The  argument  used  by  our  Lord  amplified  and  discussed. 

Christ  and  His  Contemporaries  .89 

Considerations  bearing  on  the  question  of  the  sense  in  which 
He  accepted  the  current  conceptions  of  His  age. 

The  Resurrection  of  the  Body  .  .  .  .91 

The  origin  of  the  belief  in  Jewish  Apocalyptic.  Its  accept- 
ance by  our  Lord  and  by  St.  Paul  qualified  by  their  rejection 
of  a  "flesh  and  blood"  resurrection.  Positive  values  which 
their  acceptance  of  it  was  intended  to  assert. 

Time  and  Space  in  the  Next  Life       .  .  .  .96 

The  question  whether  the  "spiritual  body"  is  to  be  understood 
in  a  purely  symbolic  or  in  a  more  or  less  realistic  sense  is 
bound  up  with  the  question  whether  or  no  Space  is  a  con- 
dition of  the  next  life. 

Arguments  to  show  that  Space  (and  Time)  is  such  a  condition, 
and  that  therefore  some  kind  of  local  centre  and  organ 
of  expression  of  the  personality — which  may  be  called  a 
"  body  " — must  be  postulated. 

Bodies  Celestial  and  Bodies  Terrestrial       .  .  .       103 

Further  considerations  on  the  nature  of  the  "spiritual  body." 
How  will  recognition  be  possible  ? 

The  Hour  of  Death       .  .  .  .  .  .110 

The  idea  that  the  future  fate  of  the  soul  depends  entirely  on 
the  state  of  mind  at  the  actual  moment  of  death  to  be 
rejected  as  immoral. 
Nevertheless,  the  way  a  man  reacts  to  the  circumstances  of 
death  may  profoundly  modify  his  character  and  therefore 
his  future  fate. 

The  Resurrection — its  Time  and  Manner     .  .  .113 

The  relation  between  the  body  of  the  present  and  of  the  future 
life  in  no  way  one  of  material  identity. 
76 


Ill  THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD    77 

CAGE 

The  Resurrection  of  our  Lord. 

The  transition  from  the  "natural"  to  the  "spiritual  body." 

No  interval  between  Death  and  Resurrection. 

The  day  of  death  for  the  individual  also  the  Day  of  Judgment. 

The  Day  of  Judgment   .  .121 

The  traditional  picture  of  the  Dies  irae  is  derived  rather  from 
Jewish  Apocalyptic,  than  from  authentic  teaching  of  Christ. 

In  the  Fourth  Gospel  Judgment  is  regarded  as  an  internal 
automatic  process  of  which  the  results  will  be  revealed  on 
"the  last  day."  At  death  we  leave  behind  external  posses- 
sions and  disguises  ;  supposing  that  we  also  assume  a 
spiritual  body  which  completely  expresses  our  real  character 
we  shall  be  "  found  out  "  for  what  we  really  are.  This  will 
be  our  condemnation  or  reward. 

Is  repentance  and  amendment  possible  after  death  .? 


Ill 

THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD 

The  Proof  of  Immortality 

Great  men  are  greater  than  the  arguments  they  use. 
Their  insight  into  the  reality  of  things  often  transcends 
what  they  can  justify  by  logic.  Plato,  Zoroaster,  the 
philosophers  of  India,  the  Taoist  sages  of  China,  to  say 
nothing  of  outstanding  thinkers  of  more  recent  date — 
men  divided  from  one  another  by  race,  temperament, 
epoch,  and  civilisation — have  all  agreed,  though  on  very 
diverse  grounds,  in  looking  for  some  kind  of  life 
beyond  the  grave.  Their  arguments  may  often  fail  to 
convince,  but  the  fact  of  their  broad  general  agreement 
is  an  impressive  one.  It  is  not  to  the  pigmies  of  our 
race  that  we  owe  the  persistence  of  the  belief  in  immor- 
tality ;  nor  is  it  the  mark  of  a  moral  weakling  to  value 
or  desire  it. 

Not  the  least  impressive  feature  in  this  list  is  the 
fact  that  there  can  be  included  in  it  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ.  A  life  beyond  and  better  than  the  present  was 
one  of  the  things  which  He  most  valued  and  about 
which  He  was  most  sure.  The  precise  degree  of 
authority  to  be  attributed  to  His  views  is  a  matter  on 
which  at  the  present  day  opinions  vary  immensely  ;  but 
the  absolute  conviction  on  a  point  of  this  fundamental 
importance  of  one  whom  few  will  estimate  as  less  than 
the  world's  supreme  religious  genius  is  a  fact  which 
cannot  lightly  be  dismissed. 

78 


Ill  THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD    79 

But  however  we  may  estimate  the  precise  weight  to 
be  attached  to  the  mere  intuition  of  supreme  genius, 
we  have  also,  in  the  case  of  our  Lord,  to  consider  a 
clear  summary  statement  of  what  he  regarded  as  the 
main,  if  not  the  only,  reason  for  His  belief. 

"  As  touching  the  dead,  that  they  are  raised  ; 
have  ye  not  read  in  the  book  of  Moses,  in  the  place 
concerning  the  Bush,  how  God  spake  unto  him,  saying, 
I  am  the  God  of  Abraham,  and  the  God  of  Isaac,  and 
the  God  of  Jacob  ?  He  is  not  the  God  of  the  dead, 
but  of  the  living"  (Mk.  xii.  26-27). 

An  appeal  to  a  text  of  the  Pentateuch  does  not  at 
first  seem  at  all  convincing.  The  actual  form,  however, 
in  which  the  argument  is  cast  is  due  to  its  being 
addressed  to  a  body  of  men  who  acknowledged  no 
other  authority  ;  but  a  very  little  consideration  shows 
that  it  is  much  more  than  a  mere  argumentum  ad  hominem. 
To  say  that  God  is  the  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Jacob  is  to  say  that  He  is  a  God  who  sets  a  supreme 
value  on  individual  persons  ;  and  it  is  argued  that  the 
fact  that  God  so  values  them  is  a  guarantee  that  He 
cannot  allow  them  to  perish.  It  is  essentially  an  argu- 
ment from  the  character  of  God  ;  and  its  point  and 
cogency  lies  in  the  assertion  that  belief  in  immortality 
is  a  necessary  deduction  and  consequence  of  a  right 
belief  in  God. 

The  argument  will  repay  a  close  examination.  What 
is  a  right  belief  in  God  }     What  are  its  impHcations  } 

Man  cannot  conceive  of  the  Infinite  in  His  totality, 
but  we  feel  that  we  must  speak  of  God  as  personal. 
But  when  we  ascribe  personality  to  God  we  do  not 
mean  to  imply  that  He  has  the  limitations  of  personality 
as  we  know  it  but  merely  that  personality — with  its 
free  self-determined  life  of  thought  and  love  and  the 
delight  in  beauty — just  because  it  is  the  highest  thing 
we  know,  is  that  something  from  the  analogy  of  which 
we  can  derive  the  least  inadequate  conception  that  is 
possible  of  the  Divine.      If  we  say  that  God  is  personal 


8o  IMMORTALITY  iii 

we  at  least  say  something  which  is  positive,  something 
which,  though  short  of  being  the  whole  truth,  we  know 
to  be  really  true.  To  say  that  He  is  not  personal  is  to 
imply  that  He  is  less  than  personal,  and  that  we  know 
to  be  untrue. 

Within  the  conception  of  personality  the  Apostles' 
Creed  singles  out  for  emphasis  two  outstanding  aspects 
of  the  Divine  activity  by  styHng  Him  Father  and 
Creator.  Father  and  Creator,  when  applied  to  God, 
must,  like  Person,  be  understood  as  instances  of  the 
highest  activities  known  to  our  experience,  taken  as 
types  of  a  higher  and  richer  activity  of  the  Divine  to 
which  these  are  the  nearest  and  least  misleading  analogies 
we  can  find.  To  what,  then,  do  they  point  ?  Let  us 
for  Father  say  Parent,  for  in  God  must  be  combined  all 
and  more  than  all  we  find  in  human  Fatherhood  and 
Motherhood  in  one.  And  for  Creator  may  we  not  say 
Artist,  to  include  all  and  more  than  all  we  mean  by 
constructor,  inventor,  thinker,  poet .''  God — Parent  and 
Artist — what  does  this  mean  ?  Both  analogies  alike 
suggest  one  who  brings  into  existence  what  otherwise 
would  not  have  been.  And  in  the  case  of  God  this 
bringing  into  existence  cannot  be  thought  of  as  a  single 
act,  but  as  a  continual  activity  of  giving,  guiding,  sus- 
taining, and  perfecting.  But  this  is  only  half  and  not 
the  most  important  half  of  what  is  meant.  Artist  and 
Parent  are  not  mere  workers  or  mere  producers,  how- 
ever diligent,  however  able  ;  they  are  above  all  things 
those  who  supremely  value,  though  for  different 
qualities  and  in  a  different  way,  that  on  which  their 
care  is  lavished.  In  different  ways  they  are  two  types 
of  absolutely  disinterested  love — in  the  case  of  the 
artist  of  the  vision  he  vainly  endeavours  to  embody  in 
his  work,  in  the  case  of  the  parent  of  the  living  person 
whom  he  or  she  has  been  permitted  to  bring  into  being 
and  to  rear. 

The  human  artist  again  and  again  destroys  his  work  ; 
but  only  when  he  feels  it  completely  fails  to  embody 


Ill   THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD    8i 

the  vision.  In  the  rare  cases  where  he  knows  he  has 
reached  such  relative  success  as  is  permitted  to  man- 
kind, he  would  wish  his  work  to  last  for  ever — exegi 
monumentum  aere  perennius.  Still  more  rarely  can  the 
human  parent  acquiesce  in  the  extinction  of  a  child — 
to  those  who  really  know  and  love  it  any  human  per- 
sonality, however  imperfect,  has  a  value  other  and 
greater  than  that  of  the  greatest  work  of  art.  Hence,  if 
the  personality  of  a  human  parent  or  of  a  human  artist 
are  dim  reflections  of  elements  in  the  character  of  the 
Divine  (that  is,  unless  we  are  prepared  to  say  that  the 
Infinite  is  in  the  last  resort  something  less  noble  than 
ourselves)  He  must  be  above  all  things  interested  in  the 
continual  production  of  that  which  has  supreme  value 
— of  value  in  ever  new  and  ever  higher  forms,  and  no 
value  which  He  has  created  can  He  lightly  or  willingly 
suffer  to  perish.  Not  merely  the  Conservation  of 
Energy  but  the  Conservation  of  Value,  to  use  Hoffding's 
famous  phrase,  nay,  rather  the  Augmentation  ^  of  Value 
must  be  a  principle  of  the  Universe. 

But,  we  must  ask,  would  not  this  principle  of  the 
Conservation  of  Value,  or  even  of  the  Augmentation  of 
Value,  be  satisfied  without  assuming  the  immortality  of 
the  individual,  so  long  as  new  and  possibly  ever  better 
and  richer  forms  of  life  were  being  continually  created .'' 
Would  not  the  assumption  to  the  contrary  prove  too 
much  .^  Would  it  not  mean  that  the  lily  and  the 
butterfly  have  immortal  souls } 

If  God  were  thought  of  merely  as  the  Artist,  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  species  with  its  continual  rebirth  of  fresh 
lives  to  take  the  place  of  those  who  have  deceased 
might  perhaps  suffice.  But  not  if  we  think  of  Him  as 
also  Parent  and  Friend.  The  question  resolves  itself 
into  this,  at  what  point  does  individuality  as  such 
become  a  thing  of  absolute  value  .''  No  two  lilies,  no 
two  butterflies,  are  exactly  the  same,  but,  despite  this 
fact,  judged   purely   by   aesthetic    values,   there   is   no 

'   Cf.  Concerning  Prayer,  p.  6. 

G 


82  IMMORTALITY  iii. 

great  loss  when  the  lilies  or  the  butterflies  of  one  year 
have  replaced  those  of  the  year  before.  Whether 
their  individuality  has  a  value  other  than  aesthetic 
must  depend  in  the  last  resort  upon  whether  they  have 
anything  which  we  can  reasonably  call  a  conscious 
personality,  or,  in  other  words,  a  soul.  So  far  as  we  can 
see  they  have  not. 

In  the  teaching  of  our  Lord  we  seem  to  detect  the 
suggestion  of  a  hierarchy  of  values  in  the  scale  of  life. 
There  is  the  grass  of  the  field  which  "  God  has  so 
clothed  " — it  has  supreme  aesthetic  value — but  which 
to-day  is  and  to-morrow  is  cast  into  the  baker's  furnace. 
There  are  the  sparrows  "  not  one  of  which  falleth  to 
the  'ground  without  your  Father " — a  phrase  which 
suggests  something  more  of  individual  care.  And  there 
is  man,  of  whom  it  is  said  "  ye  are  of  more  value  than 
many  sparrows,"  and  "  the  very  hairs  of  your  head  are 
numbered."  We  need  not  dogmatise  as  to  the  exact 
point  in  the  scale  of  being  at  which  there  first  appears 
a  consciousness  sufficiently  individual  to  have  a  per- 
manent value  as  such.  There  are  some,  for  instance, 
who  hold  that  phenomena  like  "  race  memory  "  and  the 
instincts  which  compel  the  individual  insect  to  sacrifice 
its  own  interests  to  those  of  the  species,  point  either  to 
the  existence  of  an  individual  soul  greater  than  can  find 
expression  in  the  physical  constitution  of  the  individual 
creature,  or  possibly  to  the  existence  of  a  corporate 
soul  of  the  species  to  which  the  individual  is  related 
much  as  one's  hand  would  be  to  one's  self,  if  one  could 
conceive  of  the  attachment  of  the  hand  to  the  self  as 
being  of  a  purely  psychic  and  not  also  of  a  physical 
nature.  I  hesitate  to  accept  such  speculations  myself, 
but  had  they  any  foundation  it  would  be  conceivable  that 
even  vegetable  life  might  be  the  expression  of  a  hidden 
soul.  If  so,  it  is  so  effectively  hidden  that  we  can  make 
no  positive  use  of  the  hypothesis.  But  when  we  come 
to  the  higher  animals  the  case  is  different.  If  love, 
loyalty,  and  capacity  for  unselfish  devotion  rather  than 


Ill  THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD    83 

intellect  be  the  test  of  "  soul,"  few  lovers  of  the  dog 
would  be  disposed  to  deny  that  at  least  in  some  indi- 
viduals, if  not  in  whole  species  of  the  lower  animals, 
there  is  latent  and  can  be  awakened  something  to  which 
we  cannot  refuse  the  name  "  soul  " — a  rudimentary 
soul  if  you  like,  but,  then,  even  among  men  are  all 
souls  equally  advanced?  Souls  are  not,  like  sixpences, 
material  objects  all  of  the  same  size.  Whatever  is 
sentient  partakes  of  the  nature  of  spirit,  and  the  standard 
by  which  we  measure  spirit  is  not  magnitude  but  quality. 
Dogs,  at  any  rate  some  dogs,  have  at  least  an  ele- 
mentary sense  of  right  and  wrong.  They  know  when 
they  have  done  wrong,  and  are  capable  of  shame. 
They  may  not  understand  the  meaning  of  their  offence, 
but  they  know  they  have  offended  against  the  will  of  a 
person  higher  than  themselves  whom  they  both  love 
and  fear.  The  attitude  of  a  dogr  towards  its  master  is 
very  like  that  of  the  ancient  Hebrew  to  his  God. 
Perhaps  the  analogy  may  be  pressed  still  further.  It 
is  often  pointed  out  that  this  apparent  "  sense  of  sin  " 
in  animals  appears  to  be  confined  to  domestic  animals, 
and  it  is  argued  that  it  is  merely  a  result  of  their  inter- 
course with  man.  Possibly — but  is  it  therefore  an 
illusion  ^  Nothing  stimulates  the  growth  of  conscience 
in  man  so  much  as  willing  service  of  and  conscious 
fellowship  with  a  Being  infinitely  higher  than  himself. 
Why  should  not  relations  with  a  master,  made  in  the 
image  of  God,  do  for  the  dog  what  relation  with  God  can 
do  for  the  master  ^  Indeed,  it  may  possibly — I  would  not 
say  more  than  "possibly" — be  the  case  that  animals  have 
what  is  known  as  a  "  conditional  "  immortality,  that  is 
to  say,  that  they  survive  as  individuals  only  if  they 
have,  through  contact  with  human  beings,  actually  de- 
veloped what  would  otherwise  have  been  only  a  latent 
possibility  and  achieved  something  which  we  may  call 
a  soul  or  personality  of  a  rudimentary  kind.  Hut  if 
they  have  once  achieved  personality  we  may  suppose  it 
will  still  further  develop,  and   that  they  might  come  to 


84  IMMORTALITY  iii 

play  in  the  next  life  a  part  in   the   fellowship  of  souls 
analogous  to  that  which  little  children  play  in  this  life. 

But  I  should  be  unwilling  to  lay  too  much  stress 
on  the  arguments  which  bear  on  the  difficult  and 
highly  debatable  question  of  animal  survival.  After 
all,  to  approach  the  problem  of  the  quality  and  indi- 
vidual worth  of  life  by  first  considering  the  vegetable, 
insect,  or  animal  world,  is  to  begin  at  the  end  about 
which  we  know  least.  The  important  thing  to  recognise 
is  that  at  the  other  end  of  the  scale  of  life,  in  the  fully 
developed  human  being,  we  certainly  have  an  individu- 
ality which  is  a  thing  of  intrinsic  value  as  individual. 
No  two  leaves  of  a  tree  are  exactly  alike,  but  no  two 
brothers  of  a  family  are  even  approximately  identical 
even  though  they  may  be  twins  physically  almost  indis- 
tinguishable. What  constitutes  the  individuality  of 
human  beings  is  character — character  possibly  to  some 
extent  a  thing  innate  but  ever  developing  through  con- 
scious reaction  towards  circumstances,  experiences,  and 
especially  through  the  infinitely  subtle  influences  of 
personal  relationships  ;  and  to  any  two  individuals  these 
must  be  infinitely  diverse.  If  there  are  men  of  whom 
it  must  be  said  that  it  were  "  better  had  they  not  been 
born,"  it  is  probable  that,  unless  in  some  way  their 
characters  can  be  revolutionised  either  in  this  world  or 
the  next,  they  will  ultimately  cease  to  have  any  real 
value  to  man  or  God  and  become  extinct.  But  these, 
we  believe,  are  exceptional  cases.  No  one  who  has 
really  loved  another  but  feels  that  he  has  loved  some- 
thing which  is  unique  and  uniquely  valuable. 

There  are  many  nowadays  who  urge  that  what  we 
love  is  only  that  element  in  our  friends  which  is  divine 
and  eternal,  and  that  therefore  it  will  suffice  if  we  think 
of  this  element  as  destined  to  survive  only  as  part  of 
the  Infinite  Divine  Life  to  be  manifested  again  in  higher 
achievements  of  personal  existence.  "  Whether,"  writes 
Mr.  Wells,  "  we  live  for  ever  or  die  to-morrow  does 
not  affect  righteousness.      Many  people  seem  to  find  the 


Ill  THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD    85 

prospect  of  a  final  personal  death  unendurable.  This 
impresses  me  as  egotism.  1  have  no  such  appetite  for 
a  separate  immortality  ;  what,  of  me,  is  identified  with 
God,  is  God  ;  what  is  not  is  of  no  more  permanent 
value  than  the  snows  of  yester-year."  ^ 

There  is  a  note  of  idealism  here  ;  but  it  simply  is  not 
true  to  say  that  "  it  does  not  affect  righteousness " 
whether  we  live  for  ever  or  die  to-morrow.  For  if  the 
Divine  righteousness  may  lightly  "  scrap  "  the  individual, 
human  righteousness  may  do  the  same.  The  most 
conspicuous  mark  of  the  moral  level  of  any  community 
is  the  value  it  sets  on  human  personality.  The  moral 
achievement  of  the  individual  may  be  measured  largely 
by  his  readiness  to  sacrifice  his  own  life  for  others,  but 
the  moral  height  of  a  society  is  shown  by  its  reluctance 
to  sacrifice  even  its  least  worthy  members.  The  dis- 
interestedness which  is  content  with  a  Universe  in  which 
his  own  ego  will  soon  cease  to  be  is  much  to  the 
credit  of  Mr.  Wells  ;  it  would  not  be  to  God's  credit 
were  He  equally  content. 

Weary  and  disillusioned  with  ourselves  and  with  the 
world,  there  are  times  when  most  of  us  cease  to  desire 
a  future  life  and  when  we  think  that  the  one  individual 
about  whom  we  have  most  knowledge  is  perhaps  not 
worth  preserving.  But  Christ  looked  at  it  not  from  our 
end  but  from  God's.  He  did  not  consider  the  question 
from  the  point  of  view  of  what  we  think  about  ourselves 
or  what  we  hope  for  for  ourselves,  but  of  what  God 
thinks  and  what  God  hopes.  We  are  the  children  of 
God,  and  therefore  God  wants  us,  and  is  not  content  to 
cut  down  His  plans  and  expectations  for  us  to  the  level 
either  of  our  desert,  our  weariness,  or  our  despair. 

We  are  thus  brought  back  again  to  the  point  that, 
in  the  last  resort,  belief  in  individual  immortality 
depends  on  our  conception  of  the  character  of  God. 
If  God  is  at  all  like  what  Christ  supposed  Him  to  be, 
personal  immortality  is  completely  proved. 

1   H.  G.  Wells  in  God  the  In-visible  King. 


86  IMMORTALITY 


III 


But  what  if  Christ  be  mistaken  about  God  ?  Why 
should  we  trust  His  insight  into  reality  rather  than  that 
of  some  who  have  thought  otherwise  than  He  ? 

My  answer  would  be  that,  in  regard  to  every  question, 
that  man  gets  the  right  solution  who  most  clearly  sees 
how  to  state  the  problem  rightly,  that  man  finds  the  law 
which  explains  phenomena  who  realises  which  are  the 
really  significant  facts  to  be  explained.  And  in  this 
matter  of  the  essential  character  of  the  Power  behind 
the  Universe,  of  all  the  facts  Christ  noted  those  which 
are  the  most  significant,  and  of  all  the  questions  that  can 
be  asked  He  asked  the  most  fundamental  first.  The 
conceptions  we  entertain  about  God  depend  very  much 
on  the  moral  and  intellectual  interests  on  which  our 
own  lives  are  concentrated.  If,  like  the  early  Semite, 
we  are  preoccupied  in  internecine  tribal  wars,  our  God 
will  be  the  great  avenger — on  His  enemies  and  on  ours. 
If,  like  the  Buddha,  we  despair  of  life  and  seek  only 
respite  from  the  "wheel  of  Things,"  God  will  evaporate 
into  the  eternal  calm  of  the  ocean  of  unruffled  Being. 
If,  like  the  pure  metaphysician,  we  are  seeking  merely 
the  intellectual  postulates  of  an  intelligible  world,  we 
may  chance  to  light  upon  an  Absolute  "  beyond  good 
and  evil  "  or  on  some  featureless  Eternal  which  under- 
lies the  temporal.  If,  like  the  Scientific  Materialist,  we 
focus  all  our  attention  on  the  stupendous  revelationswhich 
Chemistry  and  Physics  have  given  as  to  the  nature  of 
the  material  creation,  we  may  see  nothing  in  or  behind 
the  Universe  but  matter  and  primal  energy.  But  if, 
following  the  lead  of  Christ,  we  take  a  broader  survey 
and  look  also  into  the  heart  of  nature's  last  product, 
man,  we  shall  see  that  the  most  fundamental  thing  to  be 
explained  is  not  the  material  Universe  but  the  presence 
of  life,  and  that  the  most  significant  thing  about  life 
itself  is  not  its  quantity  but  its  quality.  The  real 
problem  of  the  philosopher  is  to  explain  this — to  tell 
us,  not  why  we  eat  and  drink,  but  why  we  can  rever- 
ence or  admire,  not  why  we  need  our  fellows,  but  why 


Ill  THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD    87 

we  can  also  disinterestedly  love.  Any  tenable  hypo- 
thesis of  the  ultimate  nature  of  Reality  must,  of  course, 
explain  the  material  creation,  it  must  explain  biological 
evolution,  but  it  must  explain  in  addition  something 
much  more  difficult.  The  world  and  the  struggle  for 
life  must  indeed  be  accounted  for,  but  in  the  last  resort 
what  most  requires  to  be  explained  is  not  the  struggle 
for  life  but  the  fact  that  men  can  rise  above  it  and  will 
cheerfully  sacrifice  life  itself  for  a  cause  or  an  ideal. 

If  the  highest  life  we  know  is  a  life  which  is  capable 
of  supreme  devotion  to  ideals,  we  must  surely  attribute 
to  the  Source  of  all  life  a  sense  of  value  deeper,  not 
shallower,  than  ours.  That  is  what  Christ  taught — God 
is  love.  And  it  is  the  quality  of  His  love,  not  of  our 
achievement,  which  is  the  guarantee  for  our  survival. 
God  is  the  Creator,  the  great  Artist,  and  must  value 
what  He  has  made  just  in  proportion  to  the  extent 
in  which  He  has  expressed  Himself  in  it — of  all  the 
creatures,  therefore,  that  we  know  on  this  earth,  He 
must  value  most  the  being  who,  in  however  imperfect 
degree,  is  made  in  His  own  image.  He  is  the  great 
Artist,  but  He  is  much  more  than  this.  He  is  the  God 
of  Abraham,  of  Isaac,  and  of  Jacob — a  God  to  whom 
the  individual  is  personally  dear.  He  is  the  all-Parent 
who  cannot  regard  His  children  merely  as  details  in  a 
picture  however  glorious,  or  as  notes  in  a  tune  however 
wonderful. 

"  What  man  is  there  of  you,  who,  if  his  son  shall 
ask  him  for  a  loaf,  will  give  him  a  stone  ;  or  if  he  shall 
ask  for  a  fish,  will  give  him  a  serpent  ?  If  ye  then, 
being  evil,  know  how  to  give  good  gifts  unto  your 
children,  how  much  more  shall  your  Father  which  is 
in  heaven  give  good  things  to  them  that  ask  him." 
No  one  of  us,  could  we  help  it,  would  consent  to  the 
extinction  of  a  child  or  friend  of  ours.  Can  God  then 
allow  one  of  His  children  or  His  friends  to  cease  to  be  ? 
If  so.  He  were  either  as  impotent  as  we,  or,  not  being 
impotent,  more  callous  than  ourselves.     I'his  cannot  be. 


88  IMMORTALITY  in 

If  human  goodness  has  in  it  anything  of  real  and  eternal 
value,  if  it  is  something  grounded  in  ultimate  reality, 
if  it  is  an  imperfect  reflection  of  a  characteristic  of  the 
Divine — then  that  Eternal  and  Divine  Reality  which  is 
the  ground  and  source  of  our  poor  goodness  must  be 
better,  not  worse,  than  ourselves.  It  must  be  more 
just,  more  tender,  not  less  so  than  ourselves.  To  It 
even  the  falling  to  the  ground  of  a  single  sparrow 
cannot  but  be  a  matter  of  concern.  In  the  eyes  of  the 
Infinite  Living  Reality  we  are  of  more  value  than  many 
sparrows — therefore  Death  is  not  the  end. 

More  than  this,  it  follows  that  Death,  so  far  from 
being  the  end  can  only  be  a  fresh  beginning.  If  God 
really  cares  for  the  things  which  we  see  to  be  supremely 
valuable  in  life,  why  is  it  that  their  perfection  is  so 
rarely,  or  rather  never,  actually  attained  ?  Why  is  it 
that  achievement  is  so  often  missed,  character  so  often 
marred  ?  Why  are  lives  so  obviously  of  value,  so  clearly 
moving  on  the  upward  path,  in  one  case  cut  short  by 
early  death,  in  another  strangely  ruined  or  frustrated  ; 
why  are  so  many  others  checked  and  stunted  at  the  very 
start .''  Look  where  we  will,  poet  and  artist  just  miss 
the  perfection  of  their  art,  the  work  of  the  clearest 
thinker  is  marred  by  some  element  of  crankiness  or 
error,  the  highest  and  noblest  character  shows  strange 
inconsistencies  and  unexpected  flaws. 

There  is  but  one  possible  answer.  Life  in  this  world 
is  but  a  stage  on  the  road  to  something  farther  on  and 
better.  It  is  a  school  whose  curriculum  is  inexplicable, 
except  as  leading  to  a  life's  career  beyond.  It  is  the  first 
act  of  a  drama  in  which  the  characters  are  introduced, 
the  action  set  in  motion,  but  the  whole  plot  is  not  yet 
seen.  We  see  enough  of  life  to  feel  sure  that  it  is 
(or  rather  that  to  those  who  make  it  so  it  can  be) 
an  education  ;  we  see  enough  of  the  play  to  catch  an 
inkling  of  a  plot — but  that  is  all.  There  is  enough 
evidence  of  purpose  and  design  to  justify  us  in  asserting 
that  there  must  be  more.     And  if  so  there  must  be  a  life 


Ill  THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD    89 

beyond  the  present  in  which  that  more  will  be  worked 
out. 

If  man  is  potentially  the  noblest  of  all  the  Creator's 
works  of  art,  he  is  also  the  most  unfinished  ;  if  he  is 
the  child  of  God  he  is  only  in  the  nursery  stage.  A 
God  that  was  content  to  leave  it  so  would  be  morally 
of  lower  status  than  ourselves. 


Christ  and  His  Contemporaries 

The  Resurrection  of  the  Body  and  the  Day  of  Judg- 
ment are  the  most  striking  features  of  the  form  under 
which  the  nature  and  inauguration  of  the  future  life 
are  conceived  of  in  the  New  Testament.  If  we  are  to 
estimate  the  value  of  these  conceptions  for  modern 
thought  we  must  first  ask  exactly  what  the  phrases 
meant  on  the  lips  of  Christ  Himself  and  of  St.  Paul. 
This  cannot  be  done  without  a  momentary  glance  at 
the  history  of  the  ideas.  But  the  history  of  ideas  alone 
may  be  actually  misleading,  unless  certain  principles  of 
interpretation  are  already  borne  in  mind. 

To  express  in  words  thoughts  even  about  simple  and 
obvious  matters,  completely,  adequately,  and  without 
possibility  of  misunderstanding,  is  always  hard  ;  to  do 
so  in  deep  matters  about  which  we  feel  strongly  is  well- 
nigh  impossible.  Poets  and  prophets  often,  less  fre- 
quently philosophers,  have  possessed  to  a  supreme 
degree  the  gift  of  expressing  thought  in  words,  but 
in  exact  proportion  to  the  originality  of  what  they  had 
to  say  they  too  have  found  complete  and  adequate  ex- 
pression elude  their  efforts.  Prophet,  philosopher,  or 
poet  can  only  express  himself  by  means  of  the  words, 
ideas,  and  conceptions  which  are  familiar  to  his  con- 
temporaries ;  and  some  thoughts  can  only  be  conveyed 
indirectly  by  association  or  allusion.  Hence,  to  in- 
terpret correctly  the  message  of  any  great  one  of  the 
past  it  is  necessary  first  to  study  the  world  of  thought 
and  idea  in  which  he  lived  ;  we  must  know  something 


90  IMMORTALITY  ni 

of  the  background  of  historic  memories,  social  usage, 
literary  tradition  and  education  of  the  contemporaries 
whom  he  was  addressing.  To  seek  his  meaning  we 
must  ask,  not  what  such  and  such  words,  if  literally 
translated  into  English,  would  mean  to  us,  but  what 
associations  the  words  would  have  in  the  minds  of  those 
who  first  heard  or  read  them  ;  and  this  often  means  a 
careful  study  of  the  history  of  the  phrase  he  uses.  On 
the  other  hand,  having  once  recognised  this  principle, 
and  having  once  thoroughly  studied  the  environment 
of  the  great  man  and  the  history  and  meaning  to  con- 
temporaries of  the  words  and  conceptions  with  which 
he  deals,  we  must  beware  of  the  error  of  supposing 
that  by  these  words  and  ideas  he  means  no  more  than 
an  average  contemporary  would  have  understood  by 
them.  No  great  man  is  ever  really  understood  by  his 
contemporaries  simply  because  the  mere  fact  that  what 
he  says  is  so  largely  original  makes'  it  impossible  for  its 
full  meaning  to  be  brought  home  to  the  majority.  Only 
after  his  influence  has  penetrated  and  has  actually  modified 
the  thought-milieu  of  future  generations  does  it  become 
possible  for  any  but  the  selected  few  to  understand 
him. 

No  great  man  of  the  past  can  be  interpreted  aright 
if  these  two  to  some  extent  opposing  considerations  are 
lost  sight  of,  but  they  are  of  more  than  ordinary  im- 
portance for  the  interpretation  of  our  Lord's  views  of 
the  mode  and  circumstances  of  the  future  life.  The 
thought-world  of  the  Palestine  in  which  He  lived  was 
so  remote  from  our  own  that  without  some  study  of 
the  background  of  contemporary  thought  we  are  bound 
to  misconceive  much  of  what  He  says.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  depth  and  originality  of  His  thought  is  such 
that  it  is  not  sufficient  to  study  the  meaning  that  the 
terms  which  He  uses  would  have  borne  to  an  average 
contemporary.  We  must  also  remember  that  supremely 
in  His  case  interpretation  must  beware  of  losing  the 
spirit  behind  the  letter,  and  we  must  recognise  that  the 


Ill  THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD    91 

key  to  the  real  meaning  of  His  words  must  be  sought 
in  the  clear  apprehension  of  His  outlook  upon  life  and 
religion  as  a  whole.  And  this  is  a  key  of  which  we  can 
only  possess  ourselves  in  virtue  of  the  fact  that  sub- 
stantial elements  at  least  of  His  general  religious  attitude 
have  by  this  time  percolated  into  and  become  a  part  of 
the  substance  of  European  thought. 

The  Resurrection  of  the  Body 

The  oldest  Hebrew  literature,  like  the  oldest  Greek, 
reveals  a  belief  in  a  dim,  shadowy  Underworld  to  which 
go  the  spirits  of  the  departed — Sheol,  the  Hebrew 
equivalent  of  Hades,  a  world  of  ghosts  and  sapless 
shades  leading  a  faint  and  feeble  existence  in  which  the 
same  fate  is  shared  by  good  and  evil  alike.  "  A  land 
of  thick  darkness,  as  darkness  itself ;  a  land  of  the 
shadow  of  death,  without  any  order,  and  where  the 
light  is  as  darkness"  (Job  x.  22).  "Cast  off  among 
the  dead,  like  the  slain  that  lie  in  the  grave,  whom  thou 
rememberest  no  more  ;  and  they  are  cut  off  from  thy 
hand"  (Ps.  Ixxxviii.  5).  "The  dead  praise  not  the 
Lord,  neither  any  that  go  down  into  silence "  (Ps. 
cxv.  17).  It  was  not  until  some  time  after  the  return 
from  the  Babylonian  Exile  that  the  hope  began  to  dawn 
that  the  righteous  might  have  something  better  to  look 
forward  to  than  this  land  of  darkness  and  of  unsub- 
stantial dreams.  This  dawning  hope  took  the  form  of 
the  belief  that  the  body  would  be  miraculously  restored, 
its  scattered  elements  recombined,  and  the  soul  brought 
back  from  Sheol  to  animate  it.  But  this  hope  and 
expectation,  it  is  important  to  remember,  did  not  stand 
in  isolation.  It  grew  up  and  it  only  existed  in  integral 
connection  with  a  particular  development  and  extension 
of  the  expectation  of  a  "Day  of  the  Lord"  and  aMessianic 
Kingdom,  very  different  in  character  from  that  looked 
forward  to  by  the  older  Prophets,  which  was  elaborated 
by  a  series  of  so-called  Apocalyptic  writers,  beginning 


92  IMMORTALITY  m 

with  the  second  century  b.c.  The  Book  of  Daniel  and 
the  Revelation  of  St.  John  are  the  only  two  works  of 
the  kind  which  have  gained  a  place  in  the  Canon,  and 
most  of  the  intervening  members  of  the  series  were  lost 
sight  of  quite  early  in  the  history  of  the  Church.^  Their 
rediscovery,  mainly  during  the  last  half-century,  has 
shed  an  entirely  new  light  upon  the  origin  and  inter- 
pretation of  that  whole  cycle  of  New  Testament  teach- 
ing which  is  connected  with  the  Resurrection  and  the 
Day  of  Judgment,  and  on  the  meaning  in  detail  of  the 
ideas  associated  with  these  two  central  conceptions. 

A  review  of  the  various  stages  in  the  development 
of  the  idea  of  the  Resurrection,  and  a  careful  discrimina- 
tion of  the  minor  differences  in  which  the  conception  is 
worked  out  by  different  Apocalyptic  writers,  is  not  here 
necessary.  To  students  of  theology  it  is  familiar,  for 
others  it  would  be  tedious.  Two  points  only  require 
to  be  emphasised  : — 

(i)  The  belief  in  the  resurrection  of  the  body  was 
in  a  sense  a  protest  against  the  older  idea — which  still 
survived  among  the  powerful  sect  of  Sadducees — of  an 
empty  and  meaningless  ghost  existence.  Compared  and 
contrasted  with  life  in  Sheol,  the  belief  in  the  Resurrec- 
tion meant  an  immortality  worth  the  having.  In  Sheol, 
again,  good  and  evil  fared  alike.  The  association  of  the 
resurrection  with  a  judgment  on  each  individual  accord- 
ing to  his  works  was  an  emphatic  affirmation  that  the 
consequences  of  right  or  wrong  choice  extend  into  the 
next  life.  So  far,  therefore,  the  belief  in  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  body  was  an  immense  moral  and  religious 
advance. 

(2)  Without  a  return  to  life  in  the  body  it  was  felt 
that  the  righteous  dead  could  have  no  share  in  the 
glorious  Messianic  Kingdom  on  earth,  participation  in 
which  was  their  obvious  due.  A  common  view  of  these 
writers  was  that  the  old  body  of  flesh  and  blood  would 
be  raised  up  with  all  its  wounds  and  weakness,  but  would 

'   For  a  brief  account  of  this  literature  cf.  p.  176,  note. 


Ill  THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD    93 

shortly  be  transformed  into  something  more  glorious 
than  the  body  of  this  life/  The  amount  of  transforma- 
tion thought  to  be  required,  and  the  conception  of  the 
life  to  be  lived  in  the  transformed  body,  vary  with 
the  degree  of  spiritual  insight  in  different  writers  ;  but 
some  extremely  crude  and  materialistic  ideas  are  found, 
and  it  is  probable  that  these  appealed  most  widely  to 
the  popular  mind. 

The  real  meaning  of  our  Lord's  answer  to  the 
problem  propounded  by  the  Sadducees  as  to  the  woman 
who  had  seven  husbands  (Mk.  xii.  18  ff.)  cannot  be 
properly  understood  unless  it  is  considered  in  relation 
to  these  elements  in  contemporary  thought.  Thus, 
as  against  the  belief  in  nothing  better  than  a  ghost 
existence  in  the  world  below,  to  which  the  majority  of 
the  Sadducees  still  adhered.  He  is  emphatic  that  the 
dead  are  raised — that  is  to  say,  that  the  life  of  the  future 
is  something  more  glorious  and  more  satisfying,  not 
something  less  so,  than  this  present  life.  On  the  other 
hand,  He  is  equally  opposed  to  any  materialistic  con- 
ception of  a  future  life  which  is  merely  a  glorified 
replica  of  the  present,  with  marrying  and  giving  in 
marriage,  and  with  all  the  physical  and  social  limitations 
which  this  inevitably  involves  in  this  world.  The 
cruder  elements  in  popular  Apocalyptic  He  rejects  with 
no  less  emphasis  than  He  had  rejected  the  empty, 
joyless  future  of  the  Sadducees.  The  future  life  will 
be  no  mere  repetition  of  this  ;  it  will  be  something 
transcending  all  earthly  experience — they  will  be  "  as 
the  angels  in  heaven." 

The  discussion  of  the  subject  by  St.  Paul  in  writing 
to  the  Corinthians  is  conditioned  by  a  somewhat 
different  background  of  thought.  The  via  media 
laid  down  by  our  Lord  was  defined  in  relation  to 
opposing  elements  in  Palestinian  thought.  On  the  one 
hand,  to  the  cruder  popular  Apocalyptic  expectation 
of  a  flesh  and  blood  resurrection  ;  on  the  other,  to  the 

^  Cf.  z  Baruch  50-51. 


94  IMMORTALITY  iii 

Sadducean  belief  in  an  unsubstantial  life  in  Sheol.  St, 
Paul's  solution  is  equally  a  via  media ^  but  not  between 
the  same  extremes.  The  difficulty  felt  by  the 
Corinthians  depended  upon  their  supposing  that  they 
must  make  a  choice  between  one  of  two  alternatives. 
On  the  one  side  there  was  the  same  popular  Apocalyptic 
belief  in  a  flesh  and  blood  resurrection  still  continuing 
in  much  of  early  Christian  thought,  but,  on  the  other, 
there  was,  not,  as  in  the  case  of  our  Lord's  answer  to 
the  Sadducees,  a  conception  of  a  shadowy  Hades,  but 
rather  a  belief  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul  conceived 
along  the  lines  of  later  Greek  philosophy. 

Like  our  Lord,  St.  Paul  is  emphatic  in  repudiating 
the  notion  that  "  flesh  and  blood  "  can  inherit  eternal 
life,  but,  as  against  a  section  of  his  Greek  converts, 
he  still  argues  that  a  body  will  be  given  by  God — a 
spiritual  body,  indeed,  but  still  a  body.  What  was 
the  point  of  this  insistence  }  Greek  thought  valued 
the  intellect  above  all.  The  afl'ections  were  associated  in 
that  philosophy  with  the  life  of  the  body,  they  belonged 
to  the  temporal  not  to  the  eternal  element  in  man's 
nature.  To  Greek  thought  airadela^  incapacity  to  feel, 
was  a  characteristic  of  the  divine,  and  the  life  of  God 
consisted  in  Oeoopva,  in  pure  intellectual  activity  apart 
from  feeling.  vov<;  only,  the  intellectual  element  in  man 
which  was  held  to  be  most  akin  to  the  divine,  would 
certainly  be  immortal. 

But  to  the  Christian  God  is  love,  and  the  highest 
capacity  in  man  is  love.  Hence  feeling,  effort,  experi- 
ence— things  which  come  to  us  in  and  through  the  life 
of  the  body — are  the  things  we  value  most,  not  least, 
and  supreme  values  would  be  lost  unless  something 
corresponding  to  them  exists  in  the  life  of  the  world 
to  come. 

Again,  "  pure  reason"  is  the  same  for  all  men,  and  an 
immortality  of  the  Reason  only  would  tend  to  obliterate 
all  individuality  and  idiosyncrasy.  If  the  "  body " 
stands  for  the  medium  of  individuality,  for  the  means 


Ill  THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD   95 

by  which  in  the  next  world  persons  will  be  recognisable 
or  still  distinct — then  the  body  must  survive. 

Eternal  form  will  still  divide 
The  Eternal  soul  from  all  beside 
And  I  shall  know  him  when  we  meet. 

To  our  Lord,  then,  and  to  St.  Paul,  the  real  meaning 
and  value  of  the  idea  of  the  resurrection  of  the  body 
does  not  consist  in  an  affirmation  of  a  material  and 
flesh  and  blood  existence  in  the  future — that  they  both 
repudiate.  It  stands  mainly  for  two  things,  that  the 
life  of  the  future  will  be  richer  not  poorer  than  this 
life,  and  that  individuality,  personal  distinctions,  and 
the  results  of  the  moral  and  emotional  as  well  as  of  the 
intellectual  activities  of  this  life  will  be  preserved  in 
the  next.  More  than  that,  it  means  that  the  capacity 
for  such  activity  will  still  endure.  "  Love  never 
faileth."  The  future  will  be  no  Nirvana  of  passion- 
less contemplation,  but  a  full  activity  of  the  whole 
personality  in  conscious  harmony  with  other  souls. 

It  is  probable,  though  less  certain,  that  St.  Paul 
had  another  reason  for  insisting  on  the  importance 
of  the  body.  His  Epistles  show  that  the  tendencies 
of  thought  which  appeared  a  little  later  as  Gnosticism 
were  already  beginning  to  affect  the  Church.  A 
fundamental  tenet  of  this  type  of  thought  was  the 
doctrine  that  matter,  and  therefore  the  body,  is 
intrinsically  evil  and  that  spirit  alone  is  good.  In 
practice  two  contrary  deductions  could  be  and  were 
made  from  this  theory — either  that  the  body  must  be 
crushed  by  an  extreme  asceticism  or  that  the  lusts  of 
the  flesh  might  be  indulged  in  at  will,  since  the  further 
pollution  of  an  already  evil  body  cannot  afl^ect  the 
spirit  which  is  a  prisoner  within.  The  teaching  that 
the  body  is  an  integral  part  of  the  complete  nature  and 
life  of  a  being  who  is  destined  in  his  whole  nature  to 
inherit  Eternal  Life  proved  to  be  one  of  the  strongest 
guarantees  against  the  invasion  of  ideas  which,  though 


96  IMMORTALITY  iii 

sounding  to  modern  ears  as  unscientific  as  immoral, 
had  a  strong  appeal  to  serious  thinkers  in  that  age. 

The  foregoing  summary  makes  it  clear  that  the 
belief  in  the  resurrection  of  the  body  arose,  was 
developed,  and  was  chiefly  valued  as  being  the  most 
natural  and  obvious  way  in  which  to  express  in  regard 
to  the  future  life  that  belief  in  the  Conservation  and  in 
the  Augmentation  of  Value  which,  as  has  been  previously 
argued,  is  of  the  essence  of  the  Christian  belief  in  God. 
It  is  the  genius  of  Christianity  to  put  the  inward  before 
the  outward,  the  spiritual  before  the  material  ;  hence 
it  is  on  the  resurrection  of  the  body  as  an  expression 
of  belief  in  the  preservation  of  spiritual  values  that  I 
would  lay  most  stress.  In  so  far  as  it  is  this,  I  would 
urge  that  it  rests  on  the  firm  and  inexpugnable 
ground  of  being  a  necessary  deduction  from  our  belief 
in  God. 

But  a  further  question  must  be  raised.  Does  an  in- 
terpretation in  terms  of  moral  and  spiritual  values  really 
exhaust  the  meaning  of  the  conception  of  a  "  spiritual 
body  "  in  the  life  to  come  ?  Ought  we  to  affirm  that 
the  term  "  body  "  is  no  more  than  a  mere  symbol  of 
our  belief  that,  in  some  way  at  present  inconceivable, 
spiritual  values  such  as  individuality,  capacity  for  action 
or  affection,  and  the  possibility  of  mutual  recognition 
are  conserved .''  Or  ought  we  to  affirm  that  in  the 
next  life  there  will  still  exist  an  organ  of  expression 
of  the  activity  of  the  spirit  which,  though  not  the  same 
as  the  flesh  and  blood  body  of  this  life,  has  some 
recognisable  analogy  to  it,  and  possibly  even  some  direct 
connection  with  it  .'' 

Time  and  Space  in  the  next  Life 

The  answer  to  the  foregoing  question  must  mainly 
depend  upon  whether  we  think  of  the  future  life  as 
being  an  existence  in  space,  or  whether  we  believe  it 
to  be  a  state  of  being  in  which  our  consciousness  will. 


Ill  THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD    97 

in    some     way    at    present     wholly     inconceivable,     be 
independent  of  spatial  relations. 

There  is  a  widespread  notion  among  philosophers 
and  theologians  that  the  Hfe  of  the  world  to  come  must 
necessarily  be  one  which  transcends  the  conditions  of 
time  and  space,  and  in  which  pure  spirit  can  exist  and 
function  apart  from  all  contact  with  or  relation  to 
matter.  Granted  such  presuppositions,  it  is  clear  that 
the  resurrection  of  the  body  is  a  meaningless  phrase 
unless  the  word  body  is  understood  to  be  used  in  a 
purely  symbolic  sense.  For  a  body  in  any  ordinary 
sense  can  only  exist  in  space.  I  must  frankly  confess 
that  until  lately  I  have  felt  bound  to  accept  this  view. 
But  more  recent  reflection  inclines  me  to  question,  not 
the  validity  of  the  deduction  but  the  premisses  from 
which  it  starts,  and  to  ask,  Are  we  really  bound  to 
assume  that  the  life  of  the  world  to  come  is  a  lite  that 
is  outside  time  and  space  ? 

At  first  sight  it  might  seem  that  the  question  I  am 
asking  could  not  be  answered  without  first  obtaining  a 
satisfactory  solution  of  that  most  diflicult  philosophical 
problem,  what  is  the  real  nature  of  space  and  time? 
If  so,  our  question  would  have  to  wait  long  for  an 
answer  and  nothing  less  than  a  treatise  would  suffice 
even  to  attempt  it.  But  this  is  not  required.  The 
widespread  notion  that  the  life  of  the  next  world  is  one 
transcending  time  and  space  seems  to  me  to  be  partly 
the  result  of  an  acute  reaction  against  the  crude  con- 
ceptions of  popular  theology,  and  partly  a  confused 
deduction  from  four  propositions.  The  propositions 
are  of  a  very  different  character  from  one  another,  but 
no  one  of  them,  even  if  we  admit  it  to  be  true,  will 
really  support  the  conclusion  so  often  drawn  from  them. 

These  propositions  are  : — 

(i)  God  exists  outside  time  and  space.  To  His 
consciousness  all  time  is  simultaneously  present  as  an 
Eternal  Now,  and  He  is  present  in  His  entirety  io/us 
ubique  at  every  point  of  space. 

H 


98  IMMORTALITY  m 

(2)  Space  and  Time,  according  to  Kant's  famous 
contention,  are  not  things  having  an  independent 
objective  existence,  but  are  "  forms  of  perception." 
They  belong  to  the  subjective  constitution  of  our  own 
mind,  which  is  so  made  that  it  can  only  experience 
things  as  happening  successively  in  time,  and  cannot 
think  of  them  except  as  existing  externally  to  the  self 
and  to  one  another  in  space. 

(3)  Thought  is  independent  of  space.  It  is  no 
more  difficult  to  think  about  the  Dog  Star  millions 
of  miles  away  than  about  a  lamp  in  the  room  upstairs. 
A  third-class  railway  compartment  occupied  by  ten 
philosophers  is  not  more  crowded  if  they  begin  to 
discuss  the  Absolute,  or  less  crowded  if  they  all  fall 
asleep. 

(4)  In  this  life,  especially  with  the  progress  of  years 
and  infirmity,  we  are  acutely  conscious  of  material 
"  limitations  "  to  the  spirit.  Human  aspiration  would 
throw  off  all  limitations  in  the  life  to  come — and  space 
seems  to  be  one  of  these. 

The  sum  total  effect  of  these  four  sets  of  considera- 
tions is  to  produce  a  general  feeling  that  somehow 
or  other  Time  and  Space  are  slightly  discreditable 
and  troublesome  limitations  belonging  to  the  lower 
life  of  flesh  and  blood  which  we  shall  transcend  in  the 
world  to  come. 

I  submit,  however,  that  a  closer  analysis  of  these 
arguments  does  not  bear  this  out. 

(i)  The  proposition  that  the  Divine  consciousness 
transcends  Time  and  Space  would  be  assented  to  by 
most,  though  not  by  all,  philosophers  ;  but  assuming 
it  to  be  true  it  is  irrelevant  to  the  question  of  the 
nature  of  our  consciousness  in  the  life  to  come — unless, 
indeed,  we  assume  that  what  happens  after  death  is 
a  complete  merging  of  the  individual  in  the  universal 
consciousness. 

The  arguments  in  support  of  the  view  that  the  con- 
sciousness of  God  transcends  Time  and  Space  are  far 


Ill  THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD    99 

too  complex  to  be  summarised  in  this  place.  But  so 
far  as  I  apprehend  them  they  (or  at  any  rate  the  most 
important  of  them)  are  based  on  considerations  which 
apply  to  the  Infinite  Consciousness  as  such  and  are  not 
applicable  to  any  finite  consciousness.  It  is  argued, 
for  instance,  that  there  must  be  an  ultimate  Unity 
which  transcends  all  difference,  an  Absolute  as  the 
condition  of  the  existence  of  the  Relative,  an  Unchange- 
able as  a  background  of  change,  a  Perfection  as  the 
presupposition  of  the  possibility  of  Progress.  But  these 
arguments  (if  valid  at  all)  apply  to  God  only  because 
He  is  assumed  to  be  Infinite  ;  and  for  precisely  the 
same  reason  they  do  mi  apply  to  any  finite  spirit. 

The  chief  argument  for  the  contrary  view  seems  to 
me  to  be  this.  In  the  world  to  come  the  righteous 
may  look  forward  to  an  ever  closer  union  with  the 
Divine,  and  in  so  far  as  this  is  consummated  they  may 
expect  to  share  more  and  more  of  the  Divine  Life,  and 
so  ultimately  to  share  the  Divine  consciousness  in  every 
way.  Moreover,  such  a  view  seems  at  first  sight  to  be 
borne  out  by  that  indescribable  experience  of  the  Poet, 
the  Artist,  or  the  Mystic  which  is  commonly  spoken 
of  as  "  an  experience  of  the  Eternal  in  the  temporal." 
This  appeal  to  artistic  and  mystic  experience  cannot  be 
lightly  dismissed,  but  I  believe  on  further  analysis  that 
the  content  of  the  consciousness  in  question  will  be  found 
to  consist  in  a  sense  of  abidingness  and  contact  with 
ultimate  reality  rather  than  in  that  complete  elimination 
of  the  experience  of  succession  which  would  be  involved 
in  perception  outside  time.  Union  with  the  Divine 
means  primarily  complete  harmony  of  will  and  taste  ; 
it  implies  an  identical  sense  of  values  in  regard  to  what- 
ever the  individual  experiences  ;  it  has  nothing  to  do 
with  the  capacity  to  understand  and  experience  all 
things  whatsoever  simultaneously  in  one  coup  d\vil.  It 
may  indeed  be  ultimately  possible  for  the  individual 
to  become  so  closely  identified  with  the  Divine  will  as 
to  be  able  to  apprehend  reality  with  something  even  of 


lOO 


IMMORTALITY  iii 


the  metaphysical  transcendence  of  the  Divine  mind,  but 
even  so  this  could  only  be  in  a  partial  and,  as  it  were, 
derivative  way.^  Otherwise  the  individual  would  be 
simply  merged  in  the  Universal  consciousness,  he  would 
become  just  a  part  of  God — a  view  which  is  inconsistent 
with  that  belief  in  individual  immortality  which  on 
other  grounds  I  have  urged  we  should  accept,  and 
which  in  the  last  resort  seems  inconsistent  with  the 
possibility  of  either  the  love  of  God  to  man  or  of  man 
to  God,  since  an  undifferentiated  unit  cannot  love 
itself. 

(2)  We  can  accept,  if  we  will,  the  argument  of 
Kant  that  Time  and  Space  are  merely  "  forms  of  per- 
ception "  without  committing  ourselves  to  the  view 
that  we  shall  be  independent  of  them  in  the  next  life. 
For  his  argument  in  no  way  depends  on  the  fact  that 
we  are  beings  encased  in  flesh  and  blood  but  on  an 
analysis  of  the  nature  of  perception  applicable  to  any 
finite  being.  This  point  he  himself  makes  quite  clear  in 
the  additions  to  the  second  edition  of  the  Critique  of  Pure 
Reason.  "  It  is  not  necessary  that  we  should  limit  this 
intuition  in  space  and  time  to  the  sensibility  of  man. 
It  is  quite  possible  that  all  finite  thinking  beings  must 
necessarily  agree  with  us  on  this  point."  "Such  an 
intuition  {i.e.  an  intuition  which  is  not  limited  to  space 
and  time),  so  far  as  we  can  understand,  can  belong 
to  the  First  Being  only."  ^ 

Many  philosophers  accept  Kant's  view  of  Space  and 
Time  in  a  modified  form.  They  hold  that  these  are, 
indeed,  as  he  maintains,  merely  subjective  "  forms  of 
perception,"  but  go  beyond  him  in  supposing  that  they 
are  the  forms  under  which  the  Universal  mind  perceives 
things.  God  thinks  the  universe — that  is  what  con- 
stitutes creation — and  He  thinks  it  under  the  forms  of 

^  This  appears  to  be  substantially  the  view  of  St.  Thomas  Aquinas — himself  a 
mystic  and  the  friend  of  the  notable  mystic  S.  Bonaventura.  Cf.  Summa  i.  10.  5, 
creaturae  spirituales  quantum  ad  affcctiones  et  intclligentias,  in  quthus  est  successio, 
mensurantur  tempore  .  .   .  sed  quantum  ad  -visionem  gloriae  participant  aeternitatem. 

2  Cf.  Max  Miiller's  translation,  p.  735. 


Ill    THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD  loi 

time  and  space.  Hence  space  and  time,  though  ideal 
and  subjective  in  relation  to  mind  as  such,  are  real  and 
objective  in  relation  to  finite  minds.  This  is  a  con- 
siderable departure  from  the  teaching  of  Kant,  since  it 
ignores  his  distinction  between  "  forms  of  perception  " 
and  "  categories  of  the  understanding." 

But  on  this  view  it  is  even  more  clear  that  we  can 
never  transcend  the  limitations  of  Time  and  Space. 
For  if  the  thought  of  God  is  what  creates,  and  if  things 
are  what  they  are  because  God  so  thinks  them,  then,  if 
God  thinks  them  under  the  forms  of  Time  and  Space, 
we  could  only  think  of  them  otherwise  by  thinking  of 
them  as  being  something  different  from  what  they 
really  are — a  privilege  to  which  few  would  aspire. 

(3)  The  fact  that  thought  does  not  itself  occupy 
space  and  that  distance  is  no  impediment  to  thought, 
though  true,  is  irrelevant.  My  thought  about  an 
elephant  takes  up  no  more  room  than  my  thought 
about  the  fly  on  its  ear,  but  I  can  only  think  of  either 
as  occupying  space  and  as  being  external  to  each  other 
and  to  myself.  And  again,  though  I  can  think  of 
Sirius  as  easily  as  of  the  house  opposite,  I  can  only 
think  of  it  as  being  something  which  is  outside  myself, 
in  the  sense  that  I  take  for  granted  that  the  self  which 
thinks  is  situated  at  or  somehow  centred  in  a  particular 
spot  in  space  which  I  call  "  here,"  and  that  the  object 
I  think  of  is  situated  at  a  certain  distance,  whether  fai 
or  near,  from  that  spot. 

Of  course  there  is  a  sense  in  which  anything  which 
is  embraced  by  my  thought  is  not  "  outside  "  myself, 
and  it  is  impossible  to  think  of  my  personality  as 
strictly  confined  within  the  limits  of  my  outermost 
skin.  But  the  difiiculty — a  great  one — of  seeing  how 
personality  can  be  attached  to  a  local  centre,  or  of 
defining  exactly  where  or  what  that  centre  is,  does  not 
alter  the  fact  that  the  very  possibility  of  perceiving 
objects  in  space  implies  that  the  percipient  is  "  here  "  and 
the  thing  perceived  is  "  there,"  i.e.  that  the  percipient 


I02  IMMORTALITY  iii 

has,  somehow  or  other,  a  centre  of  consciousness  at  a 
particular  point  in  space. 

(4)  The  notion  that  space  is  a  cramping  limitation, 
which  we  may  aspire  to  transcend  in  another  world, 
is  due  to  a  confusion  between  space  as  a  philosophical 
concept  and  distance  as  a  practical  impediment  to  attain- 
ing our  desires.  "  O  that  I  had  wings  like  a  dove  " 
is  a  common  enough  desire,  but  what  we  really  wish 
for  is,  not  to  escape  from  space  altogether,  but  to 
be  wafted  rapidly  and  easily  to  some  other  point  in 
space — to  join  some  absent  dear  one  or  enjoy  a  fairer 
scene.  In  the  life  to  come,  for  all  we  know,  we  may 
be  able  like  Ariel  "  to  put  a  girdle  round  the  earth  in 
forty  minutes,"  to  take  a  week-end  trip  to  Mars  or  a 
six  months'  tour  round  the  Milky  Way.  But  an  exist- 
ence in  which  that  was  possible  would  be  no  more  an 
existence  which  transcended  the  limits  of  space  than  is 
the  life  of  a  squirrel  in  a  cage. 

It  would  seem,  then,  that  unless  we  suppose  that 
after  death  the  individual  consciousness  becomes  part  of 
the  Universal  Consciousness  and  *'  the  dewdrop  slips 
into  the  silent  sea,"  that  is,  if  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a 
separate  individual  immortality  at  all,  the  presumption 
is  strongly  in  favour  of  the  view  that  we  shall  continue 
to  imagine  and  to  perceive  in  terms  of  time  and  space. 

But  an  ego  that  thinks  in  terms  of  space  must 
necessarily  have  some  centre  of  consciousness  localised 
at  any  given  moment  in  a  particular  spot ;  for  other- 
wise it  cannot  think  of  objects  as  outside  itself,  or  have 
any  standpoint  from  which  to  survey  them.  Hence,  a 
state  of  existence  in  which  we  can  perceive  things  other 
than  ourselves  as  existing  in  space  is  only  possible  if 
our  consciousness  has  some  localised  centre  such  as  in 
this  world  is  provided  by  our  body.  This  centre  may 
be  capable  of  moving  from  one  place  to  another  with 
incredible  rapidity,  but  it  must  be  something  which 
exists  in  space  and  is  at  a  particular  point  in  space  at 
any  given  time. 


Ill   THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD    103 

But  a  consciousness  with  a  centre  which  exists  in 
space  at  all  must  be  conceived  of  as  associated  with  or 
attached  to  some  entity  which  is  at  any  rate  on  the  way 
to  having  a  claim  to  the  title  "  body  "  in  more  than 
a  merely  symbolic  sense.  The  considerations  which 
follow  may  seem  to  strengthen  the  claim. 


Bodies  Celestial  and  Bodies  Terrestrial 

It  has  been  shown  above  that,  once  we  dismiss  from 
our  minds  the  idea  that  the  next  life  is  one  that  tran- 
scends the  conditions  of  time  and  space,  and  once  we 
clearly  recognise  that  if  we  must  expect  still  to  look 
out  upon  a  Universe  that  exists  in  space,  we  are  com- 
pelled to  assume  that  the  ego  must  have  some  kind  of 
local  centre.  But  if  the  ego  is  to  survive  at  all  it  is 
incredible  that  it  will  survive  merely  as  a  "  looker  on." 
It  must  live  and  move  and  act.  But  this  means  that, 
related  to  the  local  centre  which  we  are  bound  to 
postulate  in  order  to  make  even  "  looking  on  "  a  possi- 
bility, there  must  also  be  an  organ  or  instrument  of  the 
activity  of  the  personality  having  something  like  the 
same  kind  of  relation  to  it  that  the  physical  body  has 
to  mind  and  will  in  this  life.  At  once  we  seem  to  be 
driven  to  postulate  something  which  may  be  called  a 
"  body  "  in  something  like  the  ordinary  sense  of  that 
term.  But  if  so,  of  what  nature  is  this  local  centre, 
this  instrument,  this  organ  of  the  spirit,  this  *'  body  "  if 
we  may  so  call  it.      Is  it  material.? 

Certainly  not,  if  by  "  material "  is  meant  something 
which  you  can  kick  with  your  boot.  But  that  is  not 
the  proper  meaning  of  the  word.  A  cubic  foot  of 
hydrogen,  invisible  and  lighter  than  the  air,  is  precisely 
no  more  and  no  less  *'  material "  than  a  cubic  foot  of 
lead.  And  the  ultimate  atom  of  which  any  kind  of 
matter  is  composed  has  lately  been  shown  to  be  no 
undifferentiated  "  solid  "  mass  but  a  vortex,  a  kind  of 
infinitesimal  solar  system,  of  electrons  ;  which  electrons 


I04  IMMORTALITY  m 

themselves  seem,  so  far  as  can  at  present  be  determined, 
to  be  units  of  electric  force  without  any  measurable 
solid  substratum.  Matter  is  not  necessarily  something 
gross  ;  indeed,  if  scientific  speculation  as  to  the  ether 
are  correct,  it  is  not  necessarily  even  ponderable.  We 
need  not  even  raise,  much  less  attempt  to  settle,  that 
most  difficult  of  all  philosophical  questions,  what  is 
matter  and  what  is  its  relation  to  mind  ?  By  matter 
is  meant  that  which  can  be  thought  of  as  other  than 
mind  or  spirit.  Whether  mind  or  matter  are  in  the 
last  resort  disparate,  or  whether  they  are  each  an 
aspect  of  some  ultimate  substance  which  is  neither, 
or  whether  one  is  a  product  of  the  other  are  ques- 
tions on  which  the  doctors  largely  differ.  We  need 
not  stay  to  discuss  these  questions  ;  for  whatever  views 
are  held  about  them,  it  would  be  admitted  that  what 
exists  in  and  occupies  space  must  be  called  matter, 
whatever  its  mobility,  its  tenuity,  or  its  capacity  for 
rapidly  assuming  different  forms.  Hence  we  cannot 
deny  the  attribute  "  material "  in  its  strictly  philosophic 
sense  to  the  "  body  "  of  the  future  life  ;  though  in  the 
popular  sense  of  the  word  "material"  we  assuredly 
must  do  so — and  that  with  emphasis,  since  we  must 
suppose  it  to  be  normally  invisible  and  impalpable  to 
earthly  senses,  though  probably  both  visible  and  palpable 
to  the  acuter  perceptions  of  the  next  life. 

We  may  proceed  to  ask  whether  we  can  suppose 
there  to  be  any  further  analogies  between  the  *'  body  " 
of  this  life  and  this  material  instrument  of  the  spirit  in 
the  next,  which  would  perhaps  even  more  fully  justify 
the  use  of  the  term  "  body  "  to  describe  it  ? 

The  time  is  past  when  a  point  of  this  kind  could  be 
considered  as  settled  by  a  discussion  of  the  exact  exegesis 
of  a  text  of  Scripture,  but  it  can  never  be  wholly  irrele- 
vant to  examine  the  underlying  principle  of  the  inspired 
intuitions  of  such  an  original  thinker  and  profound 
religious  genius  as  St.  Paul. 

What,  then,  is  the  fundamental  idea  at  the  back  of 


Ill    THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD    105 

St.  Paul's  mind  when  he  draws  his  famous  distinction 
between  the  natural  body  of  flesh  and  blood  (a-cofia 
■>^v^(,k6v)  and  the  spiritual  body  {o-co/jia  TrvevfiarLKov)  of 
the  life  to  come  ?  It  is  often  supposed  that  by 
"  spiritual  "  he  means  *'  made  of  spirit,"  i.e.  "  imma- 
terial," This  is  a  possible  meaning  ;  St.  Paul  certainly 
did  not  regard  the  future  body  as  material  in  the  crude 
popular  sense,  for  he  expressly  denies  that  flesh  and 
blood  can  inherit  eternal  life  ;  but  the  context  makes 
another  interpretation  more  probable.  Since  "  natural  " 
(-v/ru^t/coi/)  in  the  context  does  not  mean  a  body  made  of 
^v)(i]^  but  a  body  adapted  to  the  life  of  the  '^jrv^Vi  it  is 
probable  that  by  "  spiritual "  (TrvevfiartKov)  body  is 
meant,  not  a  body  made  of  Trvevfia^  but  a  body  adapted 
to  the  life  of  the  irvevixa.  When  in  Greek  the  words 
■^vxf}  and  TTvev/iia  are  used  in  contrast  to  one  another, 
the  word  -^vxv  always  stands  for  the  life  which  man 
shares  with  the  animals,  while  Trveufia  stands  for  those 
higher  capacities  in  which  he  transcends  them.  Thus  the 
"  natural  "  body  is  one  adapted  to  a  life  in  which  eating, 
drinking,  and  the  continuance  of  the  species  are  neces- 
sary ;  the  "  spiritual  "  body  is  one  adapted  to  a  life  in 
which  these  things  are  left  behind,  but  in  which  the 
higher  activities  of  life  are  to  be  pursued  in  an  enhanced 
and  intensified  degree.  In  fact,  in  each  case  he  is 
thinking  not  of  the  material  of  which  the  body  is 
composed,  but,  to  use  a  modern  phrase,  of  the  environ- 
ment to  which  it  is  adapted. 

If  this  interpretation  is  correct,  the  idea  that  lies 
behind  St,  Paul's  mind,  put  into  modern  language,  is 
something  like  this.  The  body  is  essentially  the  means 
of  expression  of  the  life  of  the  spirit,  and  the  organ  of 
its  activity.  As  such  it  is  adapted  to  its  environment, 
and  it  draws  its  substance  and  nourishment  from  that 
environment.  Change  the  environment,  and  the  spirit 
must  find  a  new  expression  for  its  life,  a  new  organ  of 
its  activity,  a  new  **  body."  But  the  new  "  body  "  will 
be  as  perfectly  (indeed,  we  hope  more  perfectly)  adapted 


io6  IMMORTALITY  iii 

to  the  new  environment  as  the  old  body  was  to  the 
old  environment  ;  it  must,  therefore,  be  of  an  entirely 
different  character.  "It  is  sown  in  corruption ;  it  is  raised 
in  incorruption  :  it  is  sown  in  dishonour  ;  it  is  raised  in 
glory  :  it  is  sown  in  weakness  ;  it  is  raised  in  power  :  it 
is  sown  a  natural,  it  is  raised  a  spiritual  body  "  (i  Cor. 
XV.  42-44).  And  its  substance  (whatever  that  may  be) 
is  derived  from  the  new  environment  ;  it  is  "  a  building 
from  God,  a  house  not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the 
heavens"  (2  Cor.  v.  i).  "Thou  sowest  not  the  body 
that  shall  be   .   .   .   but  God  giveth  it  a  body"  (i  Cor. 

XV.  37-38)- 

The  idea  is  one  which  it  will  be  worth  while  to  follow 
out  a  little  further. 

In  this  world  mind  is  the  highest  form  of  life,  and 
life  only  appears  in  connection  with  organisms  made  up 
of  material  constituents.  It  is,  however,  important  to 
observe  the  relation  which  exists  in  any  living  animal 
between  the  life  principle  and  the  material  organism. 
Whether  we  regard  the  life  principle  as  a  separate  entity, 
having  much  the  same  relation  to  the  material  organism 
as  a  bird  to  its  cage  or  a  tenant  to  his  house,  or  whether 
we  regard  the  organism  as  a  single  entity  of  which  the 
life  principle  and  the  body  which  is  its  material  con- 
comitant are  merely  two  aspects,  it  is  clear  that  the  life 
principle  is,  so  to  speak,  the  predominant  partner.  A 
contrast  must  be  made  between  what  in  popular  language 
is  known  as  "  living  matter "  and  "  dead  matter." 
"  Dead  matter,"  so-called,  can  only  grow  as  a  result  of 
accretion  from  without,  and  can  only  move  as  a  result 
of  impact  from  some  external  force.  Living  matter 
grows  by  absorbing  into  itself,  by  means  of  its  own 
spontaneous  activity,  matter  originally  outside  it,  and  it 
transforms  the  character  of  that  which  it  takes  in,  so 
that  it  becomes  assimilated  to  itself.  In  the  case  of 
animal  organisms  there  is  in  addition  a  conscious  selection 
and  rejection  of  the  outside  material  according  as  it  is 
suitable  or  otherwise  to  assimilation  ;  and  this  purposive 


Ill   THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD    107 

selection  is  still  further  facilitated  by  a  power  of  spon- 
taneous movement  in  space. 

The  human  body  has  its  origin  in  a  minute  cell,  or 
rather  in  the  conjunction  of  two  minute  cells,  and  from 
this  small  beginning,  first  within  and  afterwards  outside 
the  womb,  it  gradually  increases  in  size  and  in  differen- 
tiation of  function  in  regard  to  its  parts  till  the  age  of 
maturity.  But  the  important  point  to  notice  is  that  it 
is  only  by  virtue  of  the  continued  activity  of  the  life 
principle  within  it  that  this  process  of  growth  is  accom- 
plished, and  that  the  continued  nourishment  and  repair 
of  the  body  when  grown  is  maintained.  There  is,  of 
course,  no  point  at  which  we  can  say  that  the  life  exists 
apart  from  its  material  substratum,  but  it  is  equally  true 
to  say  that  the  developed  body  has  been  built  up  by  and 
is  the  result  of  the  initiative,  activity,  and  dominance  of 
the  principle  of  life  within  it.  The  most  highly  evolved 
expression  of  this  principle  of  life  is  that  complex  of 
will,  thought,  and  feeling  which  we  call  mind  or  con- 
sciousness. It  would  seem,  therefore,  that,  up  to  a 
point,  it  is  literally  true  to  say  that  the  body  is  made  by 
the  soul  within  it,  using  the  term  soul  to  include  the 
unconscious  and  subconscious  as  well  as  the  conscious 
manifestations  of  the  principle  of  life. 

Now,  if  we  believe  that  the  soul  is  a  thing  which  has 
such  an  intrinsic  value  that,  if  the  universe  is  a  reason- 
able and  tolerable  universe,  it  must  somehow  or  other 
be  preserved,  it  is  surely  reasonable  to  suppose  that  it 
will  not  lose  this  capacity  of  building  up  for  itself  out 
of  its  environment  a  body  which  can  be  an  organ  of 
expression  and  activity  adapted  to  its  new  environment. 

"  When  they  shall  rise  from  the  dead,"  said  our  Lord, 
"  they  neither  marry  nor  are  given  in  marriage,  but 
are  as  the  angels  in  Heaven."  A  body  adapted  to  the 
environment  of  the  life  to  come  will  be  one  which  will 
not  be  adapted  to  eating,  drinking,  and  the  continuance 
of  the  species.  Our  present  bodies  have  been  developed 
during  a  long  course  of  evolution  throughout  which  the 


io8  IMMORTALITY  iii 

environment  has  been  such  that  the  chief  form  of  adap- 
tation demanded  has  been  in  regard  to  activities  of  this 
kind.  Hence  they  are  less  perfectly  adapted  than  we 
could  v^ish  to  those  higher  activities  of  the  soul  whose 
possibilities  and  value  have  come  into  view  comparatively 
late  in  the  physical  history  of  the  race.  Our  bodies  are 
the  only  means  we  have  for  the  expression  of  our  aspira- 
tions, our  creative,  our  ethical  and  our  aesthetic  activi- 
ties, nevertheless  they  are  felt  to  be  clumsy  and  inefficient 
mediums  of  such  expression  just  in  proportion  to  the 
mental,  moral,  and  aesthetic  development  of  the  indi- 
vidual. What  ardent  soul  would  not  wish  to  construct 
for  itself  an  organ  of  expression  more  subtly  responsive 
to  its  needs  and  aspirations  than  the  body  of  this  life  ? 
"  Here  in  the  body  pent,  absent  from  Thee  I  roam  " 
expresses  a  feeling  which  in  one  form  or  another  few 
have  not  experienced.  A  body,  but  one  immune  from 
the  weaknesses  and  limitations  and  grosser  wants  of  this 
world,  is  what  we  all  should  wish  for.  And,  after  all,  is 
there  really  any  solid  reason  why  we  should  not  do  so  .'' 
Matter,  let  me  repeat,  exists  in  subtler  forms  than 
flesh  and  blood.  Bodies,  as  St.  Paul  says,  may  be  of 
many  different  kinds.  Speculations  as  to  bodies  made 
of  ether  or  some  such  substance  are  too  often  nowa- 
days pursued  into  the  realms  of  the  fanciful  and  the 
absurd,  nevertheless  it  is,  I  would  submit,  both  un- 
philosophic  and  unscientific  to  reject  entirely  every  such 
hypothesis  as  unworthy  of  serious  consideration.  Such 
speculations,  no  doubt,  are  to  be  found  most  frequently 
in  books  which  portray  the  future  life  with  a  childish 
elaboration  of  grotesque  and  material  details  vouched 
for  by  fancied  revelations,  the  greater  part  of  which 
clearly  rest  either  on  misunderstanding  of  the  true 
nature  of  phenomena  like  automatic  writing  ^  or  medium- 
istic  vision,  or  on  conscious  fraud,  or  on  a  mixture  of 
the  two.  But  is  not  the  widespread  popularity  of  such 
literature  the  natural  and  inevitable  result  of  the  fact  that 

1  Cf.  pp.  257-262,  322  ff. 


Ill    THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD    109 

more  sober  teachers  have  been  content,  either  to  go  on 
merely  repeating  a  traditional  Apocalyptic  symbolism 
that  has  lost  all  meaning  and  attraction  to  the  modern 
mind  ;  or,  by  insisting  that  the  life  of  the  next  world 
must  transcend  the  conditions  of  Time  and  Space,  have 
offered  mankind  a  conception  which  to  the  intellect  is 
a  puzzle  and  to  the  imagination  an  empty  blank  ? 

The  attempt  to  reach  too  precise  and  detailed  a 
conception  of  the  nature  of  the  *'  spiritual "  body  is  to 
be  deprecated.  Speculations  on  the  subject  may  easily 
become  so  fanciful  and  uncertain  that  they  tend  to 
throw  discredit  on  the  very  idea  of  a  "  spiritual  "  body 
at  all.  There  is,  however,  one  question  which  cannot 
be  altogether  avoided.  If  I  ask  "  With  what  body  do 
they  come  ? "  I  raise  a  question  wider  than  that  of  the 
constituency,  material  or  otherwise,  of  the  future  in- 
tegument of  the  soul.  The  body  of  youth  is  very 
different  from  the  body  of  old  age.  Shall  we  be 
raised  up  young  or  old  .''  In  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead,  will  a  man  meet  his  mother  as  he  remembers  her 
when  he  laid  her  grey-headed  in  the  grave,  or  will  it 
be  as  his  father  saw  her  in  the  prime  of  life  at  the 
marriage  altar,  or  will  it  be  as  her  grandmother  knew 
her  a  baby  in  the  cradle  .''  In  this  life  we  recognise 
our  friends  by  sight  and  touch  and  by  the  sound  of 
the  voice.  Will  recognition  of  persons  in  the  next 
life  also  depend  on  something  corresponding  to  sense 
impressions  .'' 

I  think  a  distinction  should  be  drawn.  We  cannot 
imagine  that  in  the  life  to  come  the  Heavens  will  cease 
to  declare  the  glory  of  God  ;  or  that  the  "  music  of 
the  spheres  "  (if  such  there  be)  should  sound,  and  we 
be  deaf.  In  the  immensity  of  the  universe  there  must 
be  sights  and  sounds  strange  and  beautiful  yet  to  be 
revealed.  And  why  may  not  the  mountains,  the  sunsets, 
and  the  flowers  of  this  earth  still  be  open  to  our  gaze 
— but  seen  as  still  more  glorious  by  the  undimmed  eye 
and  heightened  perceptions  of  the  body  that  shall  be  ? 


no  IMMORTALITY  iii 

The  beauty  and  the  glory  may  no  longer  come  to  us 
through  five  separate  avenues  of  sense  ;  perhaps  it 
may  be  through  more  than  five,  perhaps  through  less, 
but  obviously  in  a  life  under  conditions  of  Time  and 
Space  the  capacity  of  aesthetic  appreciation  depends  on 
there  being  something  corresponding  to  sense  perception. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  probable  that  the  communica- 
tion between  soul  and  soul  on  which  recognition, 
mutual  understanding,  and  fellowship  depend  will  be 
far  less  dependent  there  than  here  on  sense  perception. 
Phenomena  like  Telepathy  and  thought-transference 
and  the  richer  though  more  familiar  experience  of 
sympathy  and  fellowship  in  love  and  friendship,  point 
already  in  the  direction  of  a  possibility  of  recognition 
and  inter- communion  without  the  need  of  sight  or 
hearing.  But  if  this  be  so,  then  in  the  next  life, 
though  we  may  expect  to  see  and  hear  our  loved 
ones,  we  shall  not  be  dependent  on  seeing  and  hearing 
for  knowledge  of  and  communion  with  them.  No 
changes  in  outward  form  will  prevent  immediate  recog- 
nition of  our  friends  ;  and  not  only  of  them,  but  of 
those  also  whom  we  have  never  known  in  this  life. 
Elijah  and  St.  Paul  will  not  look  at  all  like  the  portraits 
of  them  in  stained-glass  windows  ;  but  we  shall  be  able 
to  recognise  them  none  the  less. 

The  Hour   of  Death 

Now  might  I  do  it  pat,  now  he  is  praying  ; 
And  now  I'll  do  't.      And  so  he  goes  to  heaven  ; 
And  so  am  I  revenged. 

Thus  Hamlet  declines  to  kill  the  king  at  prayer,  he 
will  rather  wait  till  he  can  find  him 

about  some  act 
That  has  no  relish  of  salvation  in  't  ; 
Then  trip  him,  that  his  heels  may  kick  at  heaven, 
And  that  his  soul  may  be  as  damn'd  and  black 
As  hell,  whereto  it  goes. 


Ill   THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD    1 1 1 

The  Idea  of  the  supreme  importance  of  the  last  few 
moments  of  life  on  earth  appears  conspicuously  in  the 
Prayer  Book — in  the  Service  for  the  Burial  of  the  Dead, 
"  Suffer  us  not  at  our  last  hour,  for  any  pains  of  death, 
to  fall  from  thee,"  in  the  petition  in  the  Litany  against 
"  sudden  death,"  and  in  that  for  deliverance  "  in  the 
hour  of  death  and  in  the  day  of  judgment."  In  Roman 
Catholic  theology,  again,  it  is  held  that  one  who  has 
committed  any  mortal  sin  must,  if  he  dies  unabsolved, 
inevitably  go  to  Hell,  This  widespread  and  deeply 
rooted  conviction  as  to  the  critical  nature  of  the  Hour 
of  Death  contains  an  element  which,  I  would  submit,  is 
both  true  and  important,  and  also  an  element  which,  I 
venture  to  think,  is  superstitious  and  immoral. 

AH  is  but  lost,  that  living  we  bestow, 

If  not  well  ended  at  our  dying  day. 

Oh  man,  have  mind  of  that  last  bitter  throe, 

For  as  the  tree  does  fall,  so  lies  it  ever  low.^ 

The  haunting  fear  that  at  the  last  moment  some  little 
slip  may  cause  a  noble  soul  to  trip  and  fall  from  Heaven 
to  Hell  has  been  the  cause  of  untold  misery  and  super- 
stition. While  the  idea  that  there  will  be  a  chance  to 
make  it  all  right  on  one's  death-bed  has  helped  many 
another  to  stifle  the  warnings  of  his  conscience.  It  is 
time  that  Christian  teaching  repudiated  far  more  openly 
and  with  far  more  emphasis  than  heretofore,  all  relics 
of  the  notion  that  a  man's  life  will  be  judged  not  as  a 
whole  but  solely  by  the  thought  or  act  of  its  last 
moment.  Such  a  view  revolts  our  sense  of  justice  ;  it 
is  really  inconsistent  with  a  thoroughgoing  belief  in  the 
goodness  of  God.  And,  if  God  is  not  just  and  not 
good — and  that  in  a  sense  in  which  we  can  understand 
those  words — what  becomes  of  the  hope  of  Immortality 
at  all  ? 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  important  to  remember  that 
the  circumstances  of  death  vary  immensely.  Very 
often,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  death  has  in  it  no  element 

'■  Spenser,  Faerie  ^lueenc,  i.  lo.  41. 


112  IMMORTALITY 


III 


of  crisis  ;  it  is  a  mere  passing  away  from  this  life  which 
is  hardly  likely  to  modify  the  character  at  all.  In  other 
cases  it  occurs  as  the  climax  of  a  great  moral,  mental, 
or  physical  struggle.  Now,  the  way  in  which  we  react 
to  any  great  crisis  in  life,  profoundly  and  permanently 
modifies  our  character — either  for  better  or  for  worse. 
The  circumstances  of  a  man's  last  moments  may  be 
such  that  the  very  fact  of  facing  death  may  be  the 
expression  of  an  act  of  choice  of  the  highest  moral 
value.  The  sailor  who  goes  down  with  his  ship  after 
standing  aside  to  let  the  women  and  children  be  saved, 
the  soldier  who  dies  heroically  for  the  sake  of  what  he 
believes  to  be  the  cause  of  right,  are  doing  something 
else  than  merely  dying.  They  are  performing  acts  of 
supreme  moral  value  ;  and  no  one  can  perform  any  act 
having  any  degree  of  moral  excellence  at  all  without 
being  permanently  the  better  for  it,  whether  he  goes  on 
living  in  this  world  or  the  next.  And  what  applies  to 
the  sailor  and  the  soldier  applies  also  to  many  cases 
where  death  follows  an  accident  or  an  illness — the  way 
in  which  the  soul  reacts  to  the  whole  set  of  circum- 
stances, be  they  prolonged  or  be  they  short  and  sudden, 
which  culminate  in  death,  cannot  but  affect  for  better 
or  for  worse  the  state  in  which  he  makes  a  new  begin- 
ning in  the  life  to  come.  Again,  the  possibility  of  a 
death-bed  repentance  is  not  a  thing  to  be  ignored. 
Those  who  postpone  repentance  to  their  death-bed, 
commonly  find  it  impossible  to  repent  then  ;  for 
repentance  means  a  real  change  of  heart  and  not  merely 
the  conventional  reaction  of  a  frivolous  nature  terrified 
at  the  thought  of  Hell.  But  cases  of  real  and  genuine 
change  of  heart  on  the  death- bed  do  occur  ;  and  when 
they  occur  they  constitute  a  real  change  of  character 
which  cannot  but  affect  the  moral  level  at  which  a  man 
enters  into  the  life  of  the  world  to  come,  and  this,  as 
will  appear  from  what  follows,  is  really  a  matter  of  no 
small  moment. 


Ill   THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD    113 

The   Resurrection — its  Time  and   Manner 

"  And  the  sea  gave  up  the  dead  which  were  in  it." 
Christian  art  has  delighted  in  the  picture  of  waves 
dividing,  tombs  bursting,  and  the  dead  coming  forth, 
naked  or  in  grave-clothes,  just  as  they  were  when  last  seen 
by  human  eye,  to  stand  before  the  Throne.  Theology 
has  added  that  if  any  had  been  consumed  with  fire, 
devoured  by  beasts  or  scattered  to  the  winds,  the  bodies 
of  these  also  will  be  restored  "  bone  to  his  bone  "  as 
in  Ezekiel's  vision.^  This  crude,  but  vividly  dramatic, 
conception  of  the  resurrection,  ultimately  derived  from 
pre-Christian  Apocalyptic,  was  held  by  many,  though 
by  no  means  all,  of  the  early  Fathers  of  the  Church. 
But,  as  has  been  already  shown,  it  is  directly  opposed 
not  only  to  the  clear  implications  of  our  Lord's  teaching, 
but  to  the  actual  letter  of  St.  Paul's — "  that  which  thou 
sowest,  thou  sowest  not  the  body  that  shall  be"  ;  "flesh 
and  blood  cannot  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God."  At 
the  present  day  there  is  not,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  any 
theologian  of  repute  by  whom  it  would  be  maintained  ; 
but  it  is  still  sufficiently  prevalent,  especially  among 
the  less  educated,  to  be  the  cause  of  a  widespread  mis- 
understanding, and  consequently  of  a  complete  rejection, 
of  the  real  teaching  of  the  New  Testament,  and  too 
often,  along  with  that,  of  any  definite  and  effective  belief 
in  Immortality  at  all. 

The  notion  of  a  material  identity  between  the 
present  and  the  future  bodies  is  one  which  ought  to  be 
far  more  emphatically  repudiated  by  the  Church  than 
has  hitherto  been  done  ;  but  that  does  not  mean  that 
there  is  no  connection  or  continuity  between  them. 
That  connection,  however,  clearly  cannot  consist  in 
identity  of  material  particles  ;  for  even  in  this  life,  so 
we  are  told,  the  material  particles  which  constitute  our 

1  Ezek.  xxxvii.  In  Ezekiel  the  original  reference  of  the  vision  was  not  to  the 
resurrection  of  the  individual  but  to  the  restoration  of  the  scattered  remnants  of 
Israel. 

I 


114  IMMORTALITY  iii 

bodies  are  completely  replaced  about  once  In  every 
seven  years.  The  principle  of  continuity  and  connec- 
tion between  my  body  of  to-day  and  my  body  of 
twenty  years  ago  is  to  be  found,  not  in  its  material 
particles,  but  in  the  form-giving,  body -building 
principle  of  life  within,  i.e.  in  the  soul.  The  soul  is 
not,  as  the  Gnostics  thought,  a  mere  prisoner  in  a  body 
of  alien  nature.  Body  affects  soul  and  soul  affects 
body,  and  neither  is  complete  without  the  other  ;  but, 
as  argued  above,  the  soul  is  the  *'  predominant  partner." 
But  if  the  principle  of  bodily  continuity  even  in  this 
world  is  found,  not  in  any  identity  of  material  particles, 
but  in  the  soul,  it  is  obvious  that  the  principle  of  con- 
tinuity between  the  terrestrial  and  the  celestial  body 
also  must  be  looked  for  in  the  same  direction.  And 
if  we  ask  how  the  connection  we  seek  can  be  adequately 
supplied  by  the  soul,  the  reply  would  be  that  it  is  in 
virtue  of  that  power  inherent  in  the  life  principle  of 
determining  form  and  of  building  up  by  assimilation 
from  its  environment  a  new  body  suited  to  that  environ- 
ment— whether  that  environment  be  in  this  world  or 
in  the  world  beyond  our  sight. 

It  may  be  asked  whether  some  light  on  the  relation 
of  the  present  and  the  future  body  cannot  be  derived 
from  the  accounts  in  the  Gospels  of  the  Resurrection 
of  our  Lord.  This  would  undoubtedly  be  the  case  if 
only  we  might  assume  that  every  detail  in  these  stories 
was  to  be  relied  upon  as  authentic.  That  assumption, 
however,  is  one  v/hich  I  personally  am  unable  to  make. 
The  belief  that  our  Lord  showed  Himself  alive  after 
His  passion  rests  upon  a  stronger  historical  basis 
than  is  often  supposed.  Quite  apart  from  the  literary 
evidence,  of  which  the  most  remarkable  is  the  first- 
hand and  detailed  account  of  the  various  appearances 
by  St.  Paul  (i  Cor.  xv.  3-8),  the  broad  fact  of  the  rise 
of  Christianity  has  somehow  to  be  explained.  It  is 
impossible  to  account  for  the  fact  that  a  body  of 
peasants — crushed  and  disillusioned  by  the  crucifixion  of 


Ill   THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD    115 

the  leader  they  had  regarded  as  the  destined  Master  of 
the  world — started  forthwith,  in  the  face  of  incredulity, 
opposition,  and  bitter  persecution,  to  preach  with  passion 
and  conviction  the  Gospel  that  He  was  the  Son  of  God 
soon  to  return  in  glory  as  Judge  of  all  mankind,  except 
on  the  hypothesis  that  some  startling  event  or  events 
had  occurred  which  put  it  for  them  absolutely  beyond 
doubt  that  He  was  still  alive.  But  the  historical  value 
of  the  accounts  given  in  the  Gospels  of  these  events 
is  a  very  different  matter.  No  doubt  the  bulk  of  the 
material  in  the  first  three  Gospels  has  a  high  degree  of 
historical  value — of  that  a  prolonged  study  of  the  subject 
has  convinced  me — but  there  are  special  reasons  why 
I  feel  that  too  much  confidence  cannot  be  put  in  the 
details  of  the  accounts  they  give  of  the  Resurrection. 

Of  these  one  of  the  most  weighty  is  the  unfortunate 
disappearance  of  the  original  conclusion  of  St.  Mark, 
which  is  the  earliest  and  (for  purposes  of  narrative  as 
distinct  from  discourse)  the  most  reliable  of  the  three. 
Another  is  the  fact  that,  in  spite  of  the  clear  teaching 
of  our  Lord  and  of  St.  Paul,  the  early  Church  continued 
to  be  largely  dominated  by  the  pre-Christian  idea  of 
a  flesh  and  blood  resurrection  ;  and  there  are  clear 
indications  that  the  influence  of  this  preconceived  idea 
has  modified  the  tradition  of  what  actually  happened 
in  this  case.  The  most  conspicuous,  but  not  the  only, 
instance  of  this  would  be  the  statement  (Lk. 
xxiv.  39-43)  that  the  Risen  Master  partook  in  the 
presence  of  the  disciples  of  a  piece  of  broiled  fish, 
and  invited  them  to  handle  a  body  of  "  flesh  and 
bones." 

In  view  of  this  unreliability  of  the  tradition  in  points 
of  detail,  it  seems  to  me  impossible  to  make  use  of  it 
to  elucidate  our  conception  of  the  nature  of  the  con- 
tinuity between  our  bodies  in  this  and  in  the  next  life. 
On  the  contrary,  my  own  inclination  is  to  reverse  the 
process  and  to  approach  the  particular  question  of  the 
relation  between  the  crucified  and  the  risen  body  of  our 


ii6  IMMORTALITY  m 

Lord  Himself  in  the  light  of  the  conclusions  arrived  at 
above  as  to  the  general  question  of  the  continuity  and 
connection  between  the  "  natural  "  and  the  "  spiritual " 
body.  I  am  far  from  wishing  to  dogmatise  on  the 
difficult  subject  of  the  manner  of  our  Lord's  Resurrec- 
tion, but  in  trying  to  frame  a  conception  of  it  for 
myself,  I  am  disposed  to  look  first  to  His  own  teaching 
and  that  of  St.  Paul  on  the  nature  of  the  Resurrection- 
body.  I  cannot  build  upon  the  details  of  a  tradition 
which  there  is  reason  to  think  has  been  influenced  by 
the  a  priori  conceptions  of  a  generation  which,  in  this 
as  in  other  things,  only  partially  understood  either  the 
Master  or  His  greatest  follower. 

There  remains  to  ask  how  we  may  conceive  the 
transition  from  the  "  natural  "  to  the  "spiritual  "  body 
to  be  effected.  Three  main  answers  to  this  question 
have  been  suggested. 

We  may  suppose  that  during  our  life  on  earth  we 
are,  although  we  know  it  not,  building  up  an  unseen 
celestial  body  which  is  a  sort  of  counterpart  of  our 
earthly  body  but  more  exactly  adapted  to  the  expres- 
sion of  the  character  which  our  thoughts  and  conduct 
are  all  the  while  developing.  Or,  again,  we  may  hold 
that  the  death  of  this  body  is  the  very  act  of  birth  of  a 
new  body  which  will  grow,  possibly  with  immense 
rapidity,  to  be  a  perfect  expression  of  the  character  to 
which  we  shall  have  by  that  time  attained.  In  either 
case  we  may  expect  the  body  to  reflect  the  nature  of 
the  self  far  more  clearly  than  it  does  in  this  world.  It 
will  be  fair  and  vigorous  when  the  character  is  good, 
mean  and  weak  when  the  character  is  bad.  And  in  either 
case,  if  there  is  any  growth  or  change  of  our  character 
in  the  next  life,  it  would  be  reflected  and  accompanied 
by  a  corresponding  growth  in  the  "  spiritual "  body. 

As  between  these  two  alternatives  there  seems  little 
to  choose,  and  little  evidence  on  which  to  base  a 
decision.  The  third  possibility  is  one  which,  person- 
ally, I  am  disinclined  to  accept,  but,  as  the  weight  of 


Ill   THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD    117 

tradition  can   be   pleaded   in  its  favour,  it  demands  a 
serious  consideration. 

Christian  theology  inherited  from  Jewish  Apocalyptic 
the  idea  that  after  death  there  is  an  interval  during 
which  the  soul  waits  in  a  disembodied  state  until  the 
time  is  ripe  for  a  general  resurrection  of  all  men  for 
the  Day  of  Judgment,  and  that  its  assumption  of  the 
risen  body  will  be  postponed  till  that  date.  The 
validity  or  otherwise  of  this  view  cannot  be  considered 
without  a  brief  summary  of  its  origin  and  history. 

As  has  already  been  pointed  out,  the  Jews,  until  long 
after  the  return  from  Babylon,  believed  that  the  soul  at 
death  left  the  body  and  departed  to  a  joyless  existence 
in  Sheol.  The  Apocalyptic  writers  started  with  the 
conception  of  Sheol  as  an  accepted  belief.  Their  own 
contribution  to  a  more  worthy  conception  of  immor- 
tality was  twofold.  They  moralised  the  conception  of 
Sheol  itself  by  making  a  considerable  difference  in  the 
degree  of  happiness  and  the  quality  of  life  enjoyed 
there — a  difference  which  depended  on  the  degree  of 
goodness  or  wickedness  in  the  life  that  had  been  led  on 
earth.  In  addition  to  this  they  taught  that  ultimately 
ail  the  spirits  of  the  righteous  would  be  recalled  from 
Sheol  altogether  and  would  again  assume  their  bodies 
to  enjoy  a  fuller  and  more  glorious  life.  This  bodily 
resurrection  was  connected  either  with  the  establish- 
ment or  with  the  end  and  final  sublimation  into  Heaven 
of  the  Messianic  Kingdom  on  earth.  Thus  the  idea 
that  there  must  be  a  long  interval  between  death  and 
resurrection  in  the  case  of  any  individual  who  dies 
before  the  General  Resurrection  of  all  men  was  partly 
due  to  the  survival  of  an  originally  non-ethical  concep- 
tion of  life  in  Sheol  as  the  next  stage  after  death,  and 
was  partly  due  to  the  historical  fact  that  beUef  in  the 
resurrection  (i.e.  in  a  full  and  worthy  immortality  for 
the  individual)  was  to  the  mind  of  the  average  Jew 
inextricably  bound  up  with  the  conception  of  the 
Messianic  Kingdom  upon  earth. 


ii8  IMMORTALITY  iii 

This  idea,  along  with  others,  the  early  Church  took, 
over  more  or  less  uncriticised  from  Jewish  Apocalyptic. 
But  there  are  two  points  worth  noting. 

(i)  The  belief  in  a  long  interval  between  death 
and  resurrection  cannot  claim  to  have  behind  it  the 
authority  of  our  Lord's  own  teaching.  True,  there  are 
sayings  of  His  which  might  appear  to  suggest  it,  but 
there  are  others  which  imply  something  much  more  like 
the  view  advocated  above.  A  crucial  saying  is  that  to 
the  Penitent  Thief,  "  To-day  shalt  thou  be  with  me  in 
Paradise."  Paradise  in  Jewish  Apocalyptic  (wherever 
the  word  does  not  refer  to  the  earthly  Garden  of  Eden) 
is  one  of  the  divisions  of  Heaven  ;  it  does  not  mean  a 
department  of  Sheol.  Our  Lord  therefore,  it  would 
seem,  expected  that  both  He  and  the  Thief  would  go 
straight  to  Heaven  without  any  interval  in  Hades. 
The  Parable  of  Dives  and  Lazarus,  if  we  accept  the 
current  view  that  *'  Abraham's  bosom  "  is  a  synonym 
for  Paradise,  has  precisely  the  same  implication.  Again, 
His  argument  to  the  Sadducees,  that  the  God  of 
Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  is  not  the  God  of  the 
dead  but  of  the  living,  would  lose  half  its  force  if  we 
suppose  He  thought  of  them  as  being  in  a  "  disem- 
bodied state,"  i.e.^  as  enjoying  a  less  full  and  real  life 
than  they  had  done  on  earth. ^  No  doubt  the  idea  that 
our  Lord  Himself  spent  the  interval  between  Good 
Friday  and  Easter  morning  in  Hades  is  found  in  the 
primitive  Church  ;  but  that  is  easily  explained  as  being 
the  natural,  indeed  the  inevitable,  inference  which 
minds  trained  in  Jewish  Apocalyptic  would  draw  from 
the  fact  that  the  series  of  events  which  convinced  the 
Apostles  of  His  Resurrection  began  on  the  third  day. 
The  inference  was  a  natural  one  ;  it  does  not  follow 
that  it  was  correct.^ 

'  The  idea  that  the  new  life  of  the  transformed  ^I'XV  follows  immediately  after 
death,  which  appears  in  4  Mace.  ix.  22,  xvii.  18,  xviii.  23,  may  have  been  already 
current  in  some  circles  in  Palestine. 

^  The  clause  "descended  into  Hell"  first  appears  in  a  local  version  of  the 
Apostles'  Creed  about  the  year  400  a.d.  Its  probable  reference  is  to  the  "  raking  of 
Hell,"  i.e.  to  the  belief  that  during  tlie  interval  between  His  Death  and  Resurrection 


Ill   THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD    119 

(2)  The  question  Is  one  on  which  St.  Paul's  views 
appear  to  have  undergone  a  change.  When  he  wrote 
the  Epistles  to  the  Thessalonians  and  the  first  Epistle 
to  the  Corinthians  he  expected  to  be  alive  at  a  visible 
Second  Coming  of  Christ,  and  he  taught  that  the  dead 
would  first  be  raised  (evidently  from  Sheol)  to  meet 
the  Lord.  Later  in  life  he  writes  to  the  Philippians  of 
his  desire  "to  depart  and  be  with  Christ."  Whether 
or  not  he  had  faced  the  full  implications  of  this  remark 
we  cannot  be  certain.  But  we  know  that  he  habitually 
thought  of  Christ  and  His  celestial  body  as  in  Heaven, 
not  in  Sheol  ;  and  the  expectation  that  after  death  he 
will  at  once  depart  to  be  with  Christ  logically  involves 
the  complete  abandonment  of  the  old  belief  in  any 
interval  of  waiting  in  Sheol  at  all  before  the  entry 
into  the  resurrection  life. 

Possibly,  in  another  of  its  aspects,  the  idea  of  "  the 
end  of  all  things  "  is  one  which  should  still  be  retained. 
The  realisation  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth  is  as 
much  an  integral  part  of  the  Christian  hope  as  is  the 
entry  of  the  individual  into  immortal  life — and  this  can 
only  be  realised  after  a  long  process,  which  may  possibly 
culminate  in  a  final  consummation  before  this  planet 
becomes  uninhabitable,  if,  as  is  generally  supposed,  this 
will  sooner  or  later  be  the  case.  Again,  if  the  dead 
still  take  an  interest  in  this  earth — and  at  the  very 
least  they  cannot  but  be  affected  by  the  moral  quality 
of  those  who  keep  leaving  this  world  to  enter  the 
society  of  which  they  are  members — there  is  a  sense  in 
which  "  they  without  us  should  not  be  made  perfect," 
since  the  full  achievement  of  the  glory  of  Heaven  must 
wait  for  the  complete  regeneration  of  Earth. 

But  the  corporate  regeneration  of  society  on  earth 
and  the  entry  by  the  individual  into  that  state  where 

our  Lord  preached  to,  converted  and  baptizc<l  the  righteous  men  of  old.  In  so  far 
as  it  is  an  endeavour  to  assert  the  principle  that  a  way  of  salvation  is  provided  for 
good  men  who  die  without  the  opportunity  of  hearing  the  full  Christian  message 
presented  in  a  form  wliich  they  can  dctinitely  accept,  the  insertion  of  the  clause 
marks  a  real  improvement  on  the  older  form  of  the  Creed.     Cf.  p.  202  n. 


I20  IMMORTALITY  iii 

"  this  mortal  shall  have  put  on  immortality  "  are  two 
quite  different  things.  The  one  has  to  do  with  this 
visible,  the  other  with  the  unseen  world.  Jewish  and 
early  Christian  Apocalyptic,  holding  that  both  would 
be  achieved  together  through  the  coming  of  the 
Messianic  Kingdom,  really  confused  two  separate  issues. 
But  it  is  surely  unreasonable  for  us — who  both  clearly 
realise  the  distinction  between  them,  and  also  the 
historical  causes  which  led  to  their  being  confused — 
to  continue  to  suppose  that  the  resurrection  of  the 
individual  must  await  the  establishment  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven  on  earth.  Hence,  though  we  may  recognise 
elements  of  truth  in  the  old  expectation  of  the  Last 
Day,  I  would  urge  that  Christian  teaching  would  do  well 
to  surrender  avowedly  and  completely  the  belief  that 
the  resurrection,  that  is,  the  assumption  by  the  spirit 
of  its  celestial  body,  is  postponed  to  a  distant  future. 

To  reject  the  idea  of  a  possible  interval  between 
death  and  resurrection  is  no  doubt  to  abandon  the 
form  of  primitive  Christian  belief,  but  it  is  really  to 
return  to  its  substance.  All  the  first  generation  of 
Christians  believed,  like  St.  Paul  when  he  wrote  his 
earlier  letters,  that  in  their  own  case  there  would  be  no 
interval  at  all  between  this  life  and  the  entry  into  the 
glorious  life  of  the  world  to  come.  Thus,  if  we  affirm 
that  we  too,  at  once  and  without  any  interval  of 
waiting,  shall  take  on  our  new  celestial  bodies,  we  affirm 
exactly  what  the  Apostles  taught  would  happen  to 
themselves  and  to  every  member  of  the  Church  they 
knew.  The  notion  of  an  age-long  interval  between 
death  and  resurrection  is  an  inheritance  from  the  letter 
of  Jewish  Apocalyptic  which  the  actual  vital  belief  of 
the  first  generation  of  Christians  had  in  practice, 
though  not  in  theory,  already  discarded.  For  them- 
selves they  undoubtedly  believed  there  would  be  no 
interval  of  waiting  ;  and  they  never  considered  the 
question  in  regard  to  generations  yet  unborn,  for  the 
simple  reason  that  they  believed  that  the  end  of  the 


Ill  THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD    121 

world  would  come  in  their  own  lifetime.  Hence,  I 
would  submit  that,  if  we  believe  with  regard  to  our- 
selves what  they  believed  with  regard  to  themselves,  we 
are  actually  nearer  to  primitive  belief  than  if  we  accept 
the  views  of  traditional  theology. 

But  if  we  get  rid  of  the  supposed  interval  between 
Death  and  Resurrection,  we  dispose  at  the  same  time  of 
the  interval  between  Death  and  Judgment.  And  this  is 
a  great  gain,  for  it  is  only  by  so  doing  that  we  are  able 
to  accept  in  anything  like  its  original  force  and  meaning 
one  of  the  central  features  in  the  teaching  of  our  Lord. 
"  Watch,  therefore,  for  ye  know  not  the  day  nor  the 
hour."  "  In  an  hour  that  ye  know  not,  the  Son  of 
Man  Cometh."  These  and  similar  sayings  were  un- 
doubtedly intended  by  our  Lord  and  understood  by 
the  Apostles  to  refer  to  the  Last  Judgment,  conceived 
of  as  a  stupendous  crisis,  which  those  who  heard  Him 
might  at  any  moment  be  called  upon  to  face.  "  In  the 
midst  of  life  we  are  in  death,"  and  if,  but  only  if,  we 
hold  that  for  each  man  the  day  of  death  is  also  the  Day 
of  Judgment  can  we  understand  and  realise  in  our  own 
lives  the  meaning  of  this  vital  element  in  His  message. 

How  and  why  the  day  of  death  both  can  and  must 
be  also  a  day  of  judgment  will  be  shown  later.^ 

The  Day  of  Judgment 

^uantus  tremor  est  futurus, 
Quando  Judex  est  venturus, 
Cuncta  stricte  discussurus. 

Tuba,  mirum  spargens  sonum 
Per  scpulchra  rcgionum, 
Coget  oranes  ante  thronum. 

The  notion  of  one  final  Great  Assize  logically  stands 
or  falls  with  the  idea  of  a  General  Resurrection  at  the 

'  In  Mediaeval  and  Roman  Catholic  Theology  it  is  held,  rightly,  I  would  main- 
tain, that  a  "Particular"  Judgment  of  the  individual  follows  immediately  upon 
death  ;  but  the  belief  in  a  subsequent  Universal  Judgment  on  the  Last  Day,  which 
in  that  case  is  surely  superfluous,  is  retained  from  the  Apocalyptic  tradition. 


122  IMMORTALITY  iii 

Last  Day.  If  we  recognise  this  we  are  at  once  faced 
with  two  questions.  What  are  we  to  make  of  the 
language  of  the  New  Testament  with  regard  to  the 
Second  Coming  of  Our  Lord  ?  And  how  are  we  to 
think  of  the  Judgment  at  all  .''  Of  the  meaning  and 
value  for  modern  thought  of  the  idea  of  the  Second 
Coming  of  Christ  space  will  not  permit  a  discussion 
now,  so  I  may  be  permitted  to  refer  to  my  treatment  of 
it  in  the  volume  Concerning  Prayer}  The  question, 
however,  of  our  conception  of  the  nature  of  the  Judg- 
ment is  vital  to  the  subject  in  hand.  Any  attempt  to 
answer  it  must  begin  with  a  brief  examination  of  the 
words  ascribed  to  our  Lord  in  the  Gospels. 

If  we  wish  to  estimate  truly  the  relation  of  the 
teaching  of  our  Lord  to  the  Apocalyptic  views  of  the 
time,  we  must  be  careful  never  to  lose  sight  of  the 
principles  of  interpretation  outlined  above  (cf.  pp.  89  ff.). 
Besides  this,  it  is  of  the  first  importance  to  note  how 
little  in  the  way  of  detailed  description  can  be  found  in 
His  sayings  with  regard  to  the  closely  associated  topics 
of  Resurrection,  Second  Coming,  and  Judgment.  This 
is  one  of  those  cases  where  silence  is  evidential  ;  for  it 
is  just  this  sort  of  detail  about  which  all  minds  are 
greedy  for  information  and  in  which  Jewish  and 
Christian  Apocalyptic  in  general  abounds.  Those 
sayings  of  our  Lord  have  been  preserved  which  seemed 
most  interesting  and  most  important  to  contemporaries  ; 
if,  therefore,  the  record  contains  little  on  a  topic  in 
which  contemporary  interest  was  so  strong,  it  can  only 
be  because  there  was  little  to  record.  There  is,  more- 
over, on  purely  critical  grounds,  reason  to  believe  that 
even  the  small  amount  of  detail  that  is  to  be  found  in 
His  reported  sayings  is  at  least  in  part  due  to  embellish- 
ment by  Christian  tradition  of  the  actual  words  He 
used.  Our  Lord's  avoidance  of  detail,  therefore,  was 
clearly  intentional.     His  declaration  that  He  did  not 

^   Cf.   section  "Armageddon  and  the  New  Jerusalem  "  of  the  Essay  on  "  God  and 
the  World's  Pain,"  pp.  12-19. 


Ill   THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD    123 

know  the  hour  of  His  Coming,  and  His  explicit  re- 
pudiation before  the  Sadducees  of  the  grosser  forms  of 
the  contemporary  ideas  as  to  the  resurrection  which 
has  already  been  discussed,  all  point  in  one  direction. 
While  accepting  the  great  ideas  of  Apocalyptic — judg- 
ment and  eternal  life — He  recognised  the  inadequacy 
and  even,  up  to  a  point,  the  misleading  tendency  of 
the  more  elaborate  details  in  the  contemporary  ideas. 

The  only  two  passages  in  the  Gospels  which  describe 
the  Last  Judgment  with  any  approach  to  elaboration 
occur  in  St.  Matthew  ;  and  it  is  probable  that  both  of 
these  are  instances  of  the  tendency  which  undoubtedly 
existed  in  primitive  Christian  tradition  to  bring  His 
language  into  closer  accord  with  contemporary  Apoca- 
lyptic ideas  by  the  addition  of  current  phrases.^  In  the 
case  of  one  of  them,  the  description  in  Matt.  xxiv. 
29-31,  this  can  be  definitely  proved.  Practically  all 
scholars  are  now  agreed  that  a  large  part  of  the  First 
Gospel  has  been  copied  with  editorial  modifications 
from  St.  Mark  or  from  a  document  practically  identical 
with  St.  Mark  ;  we  have  only  then  to  compare  this 
passage  of  St.  Matthew  with  the  earlier  version  of  it 
in  Mark  xiii.  24-27  to  see  this  process  of  elaboration 
at  work. 

Matthew  xxiv.  29-31.  Mark  xiii.  24-27. 

But  immediately   after  the  But  in  those  days,  after  that 

tribulation  of  those  days,  the  tribulation,   the   sun    shall   be 

sun  shall  be  darkened,  and  the  darkened,  and  the  moon  shall 

moon  shall  not  give  her  light,  not  give  her  light,  and  the  stars 

and    the   stars   shall    fall   from  shall   be  falling  from   heaven, 

heaven,  and  the  powers  of  the  and  the  powers  that  are  in  the 

heavens  shall  be  shaken  :   and  heavens  shall  be  shaken.     And 

then  shall  appear  the  sign  of  the  then  shall  they  see  the  Son  of 

Son  of  man  in  heaven  :   and  then  man    coming    in    clouds   with 

shall  all  the  tribes  of  the  earth  great  power  and  glory.      And 

mourn^  and  they  shall  see   the  then   shall   he  send  forth   the 

Son   of  man   coming  on    the  angels  and  shall  gather  together 

'   For  the  proof  of  the  existence  of  this  tcmlcncy,  especially  in  the  First  Gospel, 
cf.  Oxford  Studies  in  the  Synoptic  Pro61em,.fp.  425-436. 


124  IMMORTALITY  in 

clouds  of  heaven  with  power      his  elect  from  the  four  winds, 
and  great  glory.     And  he  shall      from  the  uttermost  part  of  the 
send  forth    his  angels  with    a      earth  to  the  uttermost  part  of 
great   sound  of  a  trumpet^  and      heaven, 
they  shall  gather  together  his 
elect  from  the  four  winds,  from 
one  end  of  heaven  to  the  other. 

Notice  in  particular  that  the  famous  "  last  trump  " 
does  not  occur  in  the  more  original  version  represented 
by  St.  Mark.^ 

Moreover,  it  is  not  only  clear  that  the  editor  of  the 
First  Gospel  has  here  elaborated  the  details  of  the 
original  passage  in  St.  Mark  ;  there  is  also  reason  to 
suppose  that  Mark  xiii.,  itself,  the  so-called  "Little 
Apocalypse  "  (and  the  parallels  in  Matthew  xxiv.  and 
Luke  xxi.  which  are  derived  from  it),  is  that  section 
in  the  Synoptic  Gospels  where  the  probability  of  the 
presence  of  unauthentic  details  is  at  its  maximum." 

The  second  passage  is  the  tremendous  scene  (Matt. 
XXV.  31-46)  where  all  the  nations  are  gathered  before 
the  Son  of  Man  sitting  on  the  throne  of  his  glory  to  be 
separated  "  as  a  shepherd  divideth  his  sheep  from  the 
goats."  Here  again,  as  is  shown  elsewhere  in  this 
volume,^  there  is  reason  to  suspect  that  the  details  of 
the  picture  have  been  modified  through  reminiscences 
of  Enoch  and  other  Apocalyptic  books.  But,  in  any  case, 
the  whole  passage  reads  as  if  it  were  a  parable  intended 
mainly  to  point  the  moral,  "  Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done 
it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these.  .  .  ."  It  does  not 
read  as  if  it  were  meant  to  be  taken  as  a  description  of 
an  event  in  which  every  detail  is  to  be  taken  literally. 

Even  more  important,  however,  for  our  purpose  is 
it  to  recognise  how  entirely  the  dramatic  picture  of  an 
external  act  of  judgment  disappears  in  the  interpretation 

^  The  trumpet  before  the  Judgment  is  found  in  Jewish  Apocalyptic  (cf.  4  Ez.  vi. 
23),  and  its  mention  by  St.  Paul  (i  Thess.  iv.  16,  i  Cor.  xv.  52)  and  by  the  editor 
of  the  First  Gospel  is  doubtless  due  to  current  Apocalyptic  tradition. 

^  Cf.  Oxford  Studies  in  the  Synoptic  Problem,  pp.  179  ff. 

^  Cf.  Essay  V.  p.  197  n. 


Ill   THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD    125 

given  in  the  Fourth  Gospel.  In  the  teaching  of  this 
Gospel  judgment  is  not  a  single  act  by  an  external 
power.  "  I  am  come  a  light  into  the  world,  that  who- 
soever believeth  on  me  may  not  abide  in  the  darkness. 
And  if  any  man  hear  my  sayings,  and  keep  them  not, 
I  judge  him  not  :  for  I  came  not  to  judge  the  world, 
but  to  save  the  world.  He  that  rejecteth  me,  and 
receiveth  not  my  sayings,  hath  one  that  judgeth  him  : 
the  word  that  I  spake,  the  same  shall  judge  him  in  the 
last  day  "  (John  xii.  46-48).  Again,  in  John  ix.  39,  we 
read  :  "  For  judgment  came  I  into  this  world  ;  that 
they  which  see  not  may  see,  and  that  they  which  see  may 
become  blind."  Judgment  is  by  an  internal  and  auto- 
matic process,  it  is  a  necessary  consequence  of  rejection 
of  the  light,  it  is  a  process  of  moral  deterioration,  the 
results  of  which,  not  always  visible  here,  will  be  clearly 
revealed  "  on  the  last  day."  Scientists  tell  us  that  every 
act,  every  thought,  every  wish,  leaves  its  record  on  the 
grey  matter  of  the  brain,  and  common  experience  shows 
that  every  deed  and  every  Impulse  leaves  its  trace  on 
character.  In  this  life  we  simply  cannot  stand  still,  we 
are  perpetually  compelled  to  choose  and  to  act  ;  and 
according  as  we  accept  or  reject  the  light,  according  as 
we  incline  in  thought,  word,  or  deed  towards  the  good 
or  towards  the  evil,  we  are  building  up  our  character  for 
better  or  for  worse.  If  Judgment  means  discrimination 
between  good  and  evil,  it  is  automatically  proceeding 
all  the  while  ;  the  Last  Day  will  not  be  something  new 
and  added,  it  will  merely  be  the  revelation  of  a  fait 
accompli.  But  it  will  be  a  revelation  inevitably  entailing 
some  startling  and  tremendous  consequences. 

And  what,  we  may  ask,  will  those  consequences  be  } 
If  our  previous  argument  is  sound,  we  must  eliminate 
the  idea  of  an  interval  between  death  and  resurrection, 
and  say  that  for  each  individual,  the  day  of  death  will 
also  be  the  Day  of  Judgment.  A  moment's  considera- 
tion will  show  that  it  requires  no  artificial  machinery 
to  make   it   so.       The   distinction    between   the   shqep 


126  IMMORTALITY  iii 

and  goats,  in  this  world  so  obscure,  in  the  next  must 
necessarily  at  once  be  patent.  The  very  act  of  entering 
into  the  next  life  means  that  we  leave  behind  us  all 
those  external  advantages  such  as  wealth,  power,  phy- 
sical strength  and  beauty  which  so  often  in  this  world 
win  for  us  a  respect  and  admiration  wholly  undeserved 
and  serve  to  disguise  from  others  and  from  ourselves 
our  real  character.  We  shall  enter  an  immense  society, 
"join  the  majority"  as  we  say,  where  we  must  stand 
only  on  our  merits.  We  shall  be  rated  not  by  what  we 
have,  nor  by  what  we  seem,  but  simply  by  what  we  are. 

I?ut  there  is  a  further  and  still  more  important  con- 
sideration. Even  in  this  world  the  outward  appearance 
of  the  body  is  to  some  extent  modified  by  the  life  of 
the  soul  within,  which  profoundly  affects  both  its  general 
health  and  vigour  and  the  expression  of  the  face  and 
carriage.  But  if  we  accept  in  any  degree  at  all  the 
view  that  the  "  spiritual "  body  of  the  next  life  will  be 
one  which  will  be  a  more  perfect  organ  than  is  our 
present  body  for  the  expression  of  the  spirit,  then  in  the 
next  world  the  body  will  no  longer  be  able  to  disguise, 
it  will,  on  the  contrary,  perfectly  reveal  the  personality. 
The  body  will  be  fair  or  foul,  strong  or  weak,  according 
as  would  best  express  the  character  of  the  person  it 
serves.  It  will  bear  on  it  scars,  indeed,  but  they  will 
be  the  scars  of  self-inflicted  moral  wounds,  rather  than 
of  physical  wounds  inflicted  from  without — these  latter 
may  often  be  the  nail-prints. of  a  cross  transfigured  into 
lines  of  ineffable  beauty.  That  new  body  will  auto- 
matically "  bring  to  light  the  hidden  things  of  darkness, 
and  make  manifest  the  counsels  of  the  heart " — either 
for  glory  or  for  shame. 

There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  mere  act  of 
dying,  as  such,  will  bring  about  any  miraculous  change 
in  our  characters  or  ideals,  but  it  will  in  our  bodies  ;  and 
it  will  completely  revolutionise  our  circumstances.  It 
will  be  the  great  revealer.  We  shall  all  of  us  be  "  found 
out."      The  tyrant  will  have  lost  his  throne,  the  success- 


Ill   THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD    127 

ful  swindler  will  no  longer  impress  his  friends  and  even 
enemies  by  the  splendour  of  his  country  seat,  the 
sensualist  may  still  have  the  itch  for  base  excitement 
but  not  the  means  to  gratify  it,  the  selfish  beauty  will 
have  forfeited  her  charms,  the  self-advertising  quack 
will  have  left  behind  his  reputation.  In  this  world  there 
are  always  some  who  look  upon  the  rake  as  "  dashing," 
the  bully  as  a  superman,  the  Pharisee  as  a  saint  ;  but, 
clothed  in  a  body  which  really  expresses  their  character, 
they  will  all  of  them  be  "  found  out."  That  is  why  in 
the  next  world,  though  it  will  be  possible  for  the  good 
to  help  the  evil,  it  will  be  less  possible  for  the  evil  to 
hurt  the  good  ;  for  a  person  or  an  ideal  which  has  been 
"  found  out "  has  lost  the  power  to  seduce. 

To  be  "  found  out "  is  an  acute  humiliation.  It  is 
painful  in  exact  proportion  to  a  man's  vanity,  selfishness, 
self-complacency,  and  to  the  degree  of  respect  or  admira- 
tion he  has  previously  enjoyed.  But  it  often  has  one 
salutary  result.  To  be  "  found  out "  by  other  people 
sometimes  leads  to  the  finding  out  of  oneself.  The 
folly,  meanness,  cruelty,  and  contemptibility  of  our 
own  conduct  often  first  really  comes  home  to  us  when 
we  see  how  it  strikes  other  people.  And  to  discover 
that  one  is  not  merely  contemned  but  contemptible  is 
the  greatest  humiliation  of  all.  But  real  self-knowledge, 
painful  as  it  is,  is  the  first  step  towards  reformation. 

Partly  for  this  reason,  partly  because  it  is  natural  to 
think  of  the  next  life  as  a  society  in  which  the  good 
will  be  able  to  influence  the  evil,  we  may  hope  that 
many,  of  whose  character  in  this  life  we  are  tempted  to 
despair,  may  have  the  chance  of  a  fresh  start — at  how- 
ever low  a  level  ;  and  may  yet  struggle  upwards — at 
the  cost  of  however  great  effort  and  humiliation.  A 
"  fresh  start "  under  new  conditions  is  often  in  this 
world  an  opportunity  for  moral  advance.  A  boy  who 
has  got  into  bad  odour  at  school  not  infrequently  turns 
out  well  at  the  University  ;  and  some  who  have  been  a 
failure  at  the  University  make  a  success  of  life  in  a 


,28  IMMORTALITY  m 

changed  cnvlronniciit.  But  in  such  cases  the  shock  of 
change,  the  presence  of  new  interests,  the  influence  of 
better  friends  are  only  able  to  efl^ect  a  reformation  where 
there  is  present  sufficient  moral  insight  to  appreciate,  at 
any  rate  to  some  extent,  the  new  interests  and  the  better 
friends,  and  where  there  is  a  dawning  perception  (which, 
be  it  noted,  often  follows  rather  than  precedes  the 
first  stages  of  reformation)  that  he  has  previously 
"  made  a  fool  of  himself" 

Unless  some  perception  of  a  higher  ideal  can  be 
awakened,  no  recognition  of  the  error  of  previous 
ways  and  no  amendment  is  possible.  It  is  often  for- 
gotten that  the  result  of  wrong  doing  or  wrong  thinking 
is  to  blunt  and  blind  the  conscience.  The  v^orse  a  man 
gets  the  less  is  he  conscious  of  the  fact  ;  the  more  selfish 
and  self-centred  he  becomes  the  less  he  is  aware  of  it. 
Hence,  if  the  inevitable  "finding  out"  by  others  which 
will  result  on  entering  into  the  next  world,  the  shock 
which  this  will  bring,  and  the  kindly  influence  of  the 
better  spirits  he  will  find  there  do  not  sooner  or  later 
bring  such  an  one  to  recognise  the  bankruptcy  of  his  old 
ideals  and  the  contemptibility  of  his  old  self,  its  effect 
will  be  the  reverse  of  redemptive.  To  be  despised  for 
what  one  thinks  to  be  one's  excellence,  to  be  pitied  for 
that  of  which  one  is  most  proud,  to  be  convinced  that 
admiration,  aff^ection,  and  respect  are  one's  due,  and  to 
receive  the  contrary,  is  to  suffer  acutely  ;  but  it  is  the 
suffering  not  of  Purgatory  but  of  Hell — for  it  is  suffer- 
ing which  is  not  redemptive  but  wholly  profitless.^  It  is 
the  inevitable  consequence  of  egotism  in  its  extreme  de- 
velopment that  it  makes  a  man  unable  to  perceive  his 
own  nature,  and  that  therefore  he  cannot  but  regard  him- 
self as  an  instance  of  merit  unappreciated  and  goodness 
misunderstood  ;  and  he  becomes  ever  more  and  more 
sensitive  and  more  and  more  resentful.  But  if  a  man 
once  repents  and  recognises  past  suffering  as  deserved, 
even  suffering  which  was  resented  and  therefore  profit- 

'   For  a  further  development  of  this  point  cf.  Concerning  Prayer,  pp.  30-33. 


Ill    THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD    129 

less  at  the  time  may  in  retrospect  be  made  redemp- 
tive. So  long  as  a  man  has  the  faintest  perception  of 
an  ideal  that  is  higher  than  that  which  is  expressed  in 
his  own  life  there  is  a  chance  of  reformation — that  is 
why  the  publican,  though  of  a  lower  standard  of  actual 
achievement,  is  more  hopeful  than  the  Pharisee.  For 
the  incurably  selfish,  however,  if  such  there  be,  there 
must  be  an  experience  of  Hell,  that  is  to  say,  a  period 
of  inevitable  but  wholly  profitless  suffering.  But  a 
recognition  of  this  fact  does  not  bind  us  to  suppose 
that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  any  cases  will  be  found  to  be 
ultimately  incurable  ;  or  that,  if  so,  the  Hell  in  which 
they  will  have  necessarily  lived  for  a  time  will  not 
ultimately  be  ended  by  their  annihilation.  On  this 
point  I  should  wish  to  associate  myself  entirely  with 
the  view  expressed  in  Essay  V. 

But  the  Judgment  will  not  be  all  of  one  kind.  Not 
only  will  the  evil  be  "  found  out,"  the  good  will  also 
be  revealed  for  what  they  are.  And  this  will  mean 
that  many  of  the  apparent  failures  of  this  life  will  be 
seen  in  a  very  different  light.  The  rank  and  file  of 
brave,  cheerful,  kindly,  dutiful,  hard-working  men  and 
women  may  stand  out  as  more  admirable  than  some 
whom  the  world  regards  as  saints  and  heroes.  The 
soldier  who  could  not  take  the  trench,  the  unknown 
researcher  who  just  failed  to  make  the  great  discovery 
but  paved  the  way  for  some  one  else,  the 

village  Hampden  who,  with  dauntless  breast, 
The  little  tyrant  of  his  fields  withstood  ; 

all  these  will  be  "  discovered  " — much  to  their  own 
surprise.  "Lord,  when  saw  we  thee  hungry  and  fed 
thee .''"  they  will  exclaim  with  astonishment.  Mirrored  in 
the  eyes  of  those  around  they  will  see  themselves  trans- 
figured, and  with  astonished  ears  will  hear  echoing  from 
lip  to  lip  the  cry  of  welcome,  "  Well  done,  good  and 
faithful  servant,  thou  hast  been  faithful  over  a  few 
things  :   enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord." 

K 


IV 

THE  LIFE  OF  THE  WORLD  TO  COME 


BY 


B.  H.  STREETER 


131 


SYNOPSIS 

PART  I 

Till-:  CoNDrrioNs  ok  the  Life  beyond  the  Present 

1'a<;e 

The  Need  of  a  Definite  Conception  .  .  .  .134 

The  traditional  pictures  of  Heaven,  Purgatory,  and  Hell 
liavc  ceased  to  "grip"  the  modern  man,  even  as  symbolism, 
with  a  consequent  weakening  of  the  belief  in  Immortality. 

Hence  the  need  of  an  alternative,  but  no  less  definite,  way 
of  conceiving  the  nature  of  the  future  life. 

Tentative  character  of  the  present  Essay. 

(Quality  of  Life,  Locality,  and  Progress      .  .  .136 

Heaven  is  not  a  place  above  the  sky,  but  no  need  to  eliminate 
the  idea  of  space  altogether. 

Nevertheless,  "  Quality  of  life "  must  be  our  guiding 
conception. 

If  so,  there  must  be  many  gradations,  not  merely  two  (or 
three)  Heaven  (Purgatory)  Hell.  But  persons  in  different 
stages  not  necessarily  locally  separated  from  one  another. 

Progress  an  essential  element  in  our  conception. 

Purgatory  .  ,  -139 

Criticism  of  modern  Roman  Catholic  doctrine. 

Any  acceptable  view  must  stress  the  positive  idea  of  moral 
growth  rather  than  the  negative  idea  of  cleansing  (a  misleading 
metaphor),  and  must  also  recognise  value  of  joy  as  well  as  pain 
in  development  of  character. 

Progress  and  Attainment        .....       141 

The  idea  of  Progress  suggests  an  ultimate  goal.  But  is 
finality  desirable  ? 

Reasons  for  passing  over  this  question  and  confining  our 
attention  to  the  life  immediately  following  this,  i.e.  to  the 
proximate  as  distinguished  from  the  ultimate  Heaven,  if  such 
there  be. 

PART  II 
The  Nature  of  Eternal  Life 
God,  Man,  and  Christ   ... 

Life  in  Heaven  must  be  thought  of  as  a  participation  in  the 
Divine  Life  ;  but  what  do  we  know  of  the  nature  of  the 
Divine  Life  .> 

The  doctrine  of  the  Divinity  of  Christ,  properly  understood, 
132 


145 


IV       LIFE  OF  THE  WORLD  TO  COME     133 

PACE 

answers  this  question.  Christ  is  "  the  portrait  of  the  unseen 
God  "  ;  but,  if  so,  God  must  be  very  different  from  what 
we  are  apt  to  think,  and  Heaven  must  not  be  thought  of 
after  the  model  of  "  Solomon  in  all  his  glory." 

Eternal  Life  .  .148 

St.  John's  conception  of  Eternal  Life. 

The  highest  life  we  know  on  earth  is  a  foretaste  of  the  life 
of  Heaven. 

But  what  is  the  highest  life  on  earth  ? 

The  influence  of  Plotinus  and  the  experience  of  supreme 
moments  has  led  to  an  under-estimating  of  the  value  of  variety 
in  our  conception  of  Heaven. 

Our  Lord's  fondness  for  the  symbol  of  the  "Supper"  shows 
importance  in  His  view  of  the  more  "  homely "  and  of  the 
social  elements  in  experience. 

The  Content  of  the  Idea  of  Heaven  .  .  .       154 

Love. 

"Charity  never  faileth  "  ;  love  will  be  the  same  in  kind  in 
the  next  as  in  the  present  life  ;  which  must  therefore  be 
thought  of  as  predominantly  social  in  character. 

IVork. 

Creation  not  a  finished  act  but  an  eternal  activity  of  the 
Divine  Life  ;  there  will  therefore  be  work  to  do  in  Heaven. 

Thought. 

An  essential  element  in  the  highest  life  and  therefore  eternal. 
Importance  attached  to  intellectual  activity  and  the  appre- 
hension of  truth  by  St.  Paul  and  St.  Thomas  Aquinas. 

Beauty. 

Popular  Theology,  influenced  by  the  symbolism  of  the 
Apocalypse,  recognises  the  existence  of  aesthetic  activity  in 
the  next  life  ;  but  the  conception  of  beauty  implied  is  too 
narrow. 

Humour. 

A  quality  exhibited  by  our  Lord,  and  therefore  an  element 
in  the  highest  life. 
In  praise  of  Humour. 

The  Vision  of  God. 

In  the  next  life  there  must  be  elements  which  transcend 
imagination.  The  language  used  about  the  Beatific  Vision 
has  in  practice  led  to  an  impoverishment  of  the  idea  of  Heaven, 
and  consequently  to  a  false  notion  of  sanctity,  i.e.  of  the  kind 
of  life  which  is  the  best  preparation  for  Heaven. 

What  we  see  in  Goodness,  Truth,  and  Beauty  is  really  the 
Divine,  but,  as  God  is  personal,  these  do  not  reveal  Him  fully. 

Christ  will  not  cease  to  reveal  the  Father  in  the  next  life, 
hence  we  may  expect  our  knowledge  of  God  to  be  consum- 
mated in  the  vision  of  Christ  in  His  "spiritual  body." 

The  effect  on  the  individual  of  the  \'ision  of  Christ. 

The  unimaginable  Beyond. 


IV 
THE  LIFE  OF  THE  WORLD  TO  COME 

PART  I 

THE  CONDITIONS  OF  THE  LIFE  BEYOND 
THE  PRESENT 

The  Need  of  a  Definite  Conception 

Among  educated  people  it  is  recognised  that  the 
traditional  language  about  a  Heaven  "  above  the 
bright  blue  sky "  or  a  Hell  beneath  the  earth  can 
only  be  accepted  as  figurative.  We  are  commonly 
told  that  we  ought  to  think  of  Heaven,  "  not  as 
a  place  but  as  a  state,"  and  that  the  harps,  palms, 
and  crowns  are  merely  symbols.  The  phrase,  "  not  a 
place  but  a  state,"  is  only  half  satisfactory,  but  for  the 
moment  we  may  accept  it  and  note  that  it  applies 
also  to  Purgatory  and  Hell,  supposing  we  feel  bound 
to  retain  either  or  both  of  these  conceptions  in  our 
creed.  But,  if  we  are  frankly  to  abandon  the  old 
mental  pictures  and  really  begin  to  ask  what  we  mean 
when  we  say  that  Heaven  is  not  a  place  but  a  state,  it 
behoves  us  to  ask  with  no  slight  insistence  what  kind 
of  state  we  mean.  If  we  dismiss  the  old  imagery  as 
merely  symbol  we  are  the  more  bound  to  ask  what 
kind  of  a  thing  does  it  symbolise  .'' 

This  question  is  one  to  which  no  final  and  no  cut- 
and-dried  answer  is  possible,  or  even  desirable.     But  it 

134 


IV        LIFE  OF  THE  WORLD  TO  COME     135 

is  well  worth  while  to  make  a  resolute  attempt  to 
arrive  at  an  answer  as  clear  and  definite  as  is  practicable 
in  view  of  the  nature  of  the  enquiry  and  of  the  limitations 
of  human  experience  and  imagination.  This  attempt  is 
no  mere  interesting  exercise  in  academic  speculation,  it 
is  a  vital  necessity  for  religion  and  life.  The  old  con- 
ceptions of  Heaven  and  Hell  which  were  developed  by 
the  early  and  mediaeval  Church,  partly  from  hints  in 
the  New  Testament,  but  mainly  on  the  basis  of  ideas 
inherited  from  pre-Christian  Jewish  Apocalyptic,  had 
the  great  merit  that  they  presented  vivid  pictures  of 
the  nature  of  the  world  to  come, — pictures  clear  and 
definite  enough  to  fire  the  imagination,  to  convince  the 
intellect,  and  thereby  to  mould  the  aspirations  and 
influence  the  conduct  of  mankind.  At  the  present  day 
these  conceptions  are  intellectually  discredited,  even  at 
the  level  of  education  which  the  Elementary  School  has 
made  universal.  They  cannot  be  galvanised  into  fresh 
life. 

Contemporary  religion  has  no  more  pressing  need 
than  the  thinking  out  and  popularisation  of  new  ways 
of  presenting  to  the  mind  an  idea  of  what  is  meant 
by  the  Christian  hope  of  immortality,  clear  and  definite 
enough  to  do  for  our  generation  what  the  symbols 
and  pictures  inherited  from  Jewish  Apocalyptic  did  for 
our  fathers.  The  lack  of  clear  and  reasoned  guiding 
conceptions  as  to  the  nature  of  the  Future  Life  is,  I  am 
confident,  at  the  root  of  most  of  the  widespread  doubt 
and  disbelief  in  immortality  at  the  present  day. 
People  do  not  believe  in  a  future  life  because  the  forms 
in  which  the  belief  has  been  presented  to  their  minds 
seem,  on  the  one  hand,  to  be  intellectually  untenable, 
and,  on  the  other,  to  be  unattractive  or  even  repellent. 
Traditional  pictures  of  Hell  seem  morally  revolting  ; 
while  the  Heaven  of  Sunday  School  teaching  or  popular 
hymnology  is  a  place  which  the  plain  man  does  not 
believe  to  exist,  and  which  he  would  not  want  to  go  to 
if  it  did. 


136  IMMORTALITY  iv 

This  paper  is  an  attempt  to  think  out  the  implica- 
tions of  the  New  Testament  conception  of  Eternal  Life 
in  the  light  of  the  changed  intellectual  background  of 
the  present  day.  It  is  put  forward  not  with  the  dog- 
matism of  one  who  proclaims  unchallengeable  results, 
but  rather  as  a  suggestion  of  the  lines  along  which  the 
solution  of  an  admittedly  difficult  problem  may  be 
looked  for.  As  such  it  is  submitted,  and  as  such  I 
would  ask  that  it  be  judged. 

Quality  of  Life,  Locality,  and  Progress 

At  the  outset  I  must  observe  that  if,  as  has  been 
argued  in  the  previous  paper,  existence  in  the  next  life 
as  in  this  must  be  thought  of  as  existence  in  space,  the 
proposition  that  Heaven  must  be  thought  of  rather  as  a 
state  than  as  a  place  can  only  be  accepted  if  it  means 
that  Heaven  must  not  be  thought  of  as  one  particular 
and  definite  place  situated  locally  above  the  sky — a  con- 
ception which  belongs  to  an  age  which  believed  the 
earth  to  be  the  centre  of  the  Universe.  The  discovery 
that  the  earth  is  not  the  centre  of  the  Universe,  but  a 
mere  speck  in  a  corner  of  it,  one  world  out  of  many 
millions,  does  not  mean  that  we  must  eliminate  the 
notion  of  place  from  our  conception  of  any  life  beyond 
the  present.  On  the  contrary,  it  means  that  we  must 
infinitely  enlarge  our  conception  of  the  amount  of  room 
there  is  and  ot  the  number  of  places  which  the  Uni- 
verse contains.  It  thus  becomes  thinkable  that  in  the 
next  life  we  may  have  the  power  of  easy  and  rapid 
movement  from  world  to  world  ;  or  may  have  our 
home,  as  it  were,  in  some  one  world  with  the  power  of 
visiting  or  communicating  with  this  and  other  worlds. 
We  know  nothing  about  the  spatial  conditions  of  the 
next  life,  but  it  is  important  to  insist  that  we  are  in  no 
way  bound,  because  we  discard  the  old  Apocalyptic 
Heaven  above  "  this  solid  bowl  we  call  the  sky,"  to  rob 
our  conception  of  the  next  life  of  that  element  of  space 


IV        LIFE  OF  THE  WORLD  TO  COME     137 

and  spaciousness  which  must  be  preserved  if  we  are  to 
attempt  to  imagine  it  at  all. 

The  value  of  the  proposition  that  Heaven  must  be 
thought  of  "  not  as  a  place  but  as  a  state  "  lies  in  the 
positive  not  in  the  negative  part  of  the  sentence  ;  for, 
though  we  can  only  make  the  merest  guess  at  the 
spatial  conditions  of  the  next  life,  we  can,  if  we  are  at 
pains  to  think  out  what  is  implicit  in  the  fundamental 
ideas  of  the  New  Testament,  arrive  at  very  clear  and 
definite  ideas  as  to  the  state  or  quality  of  life  enjoyed 
by  the  righteous  in  the  world  to  come.  In  the  second 
part  of  this  Essay  I  shall  show  that  in  the  last  resort 
the  New  Testament  idea  of  Heaven  is  thought  out  less 
in  terms  of  place  than  in  terms  of  quality  of  life^  and  I 
shall  endeavour  to  give  clearness  and  definition  to  this 
conception.  But,  before  doing  this,  it  is  worth  while 
to  point  out  certain  very  important  consequences  which 
follow  if  we  take  as  the  basis  of  our  idea  of  the  world 
beyond  the  present  the  conception  of  quality  of  life. 

So  long  as  Heaven,  Purgatory,  and  Hell  are  thought 
of  mainly  in  terms  of  place,  they  must  necessarily  be 
thought  of  as  entirely  separate  one  from  the  other,  so 
that  a  person  who  is  in  one  could  have  little  or  no 
communication  with  a  person  in  the  other.  Again, 
along  with  the  idea  of  three  dififerent  places  goes 
naturally  (if  not  in  strict  logic)  the  idea  of  three  dis- 
tinct states  of  desert  and  happiness  separable  from  one 
another  by  clear,  definite,  hard  and  fast  lines.  But  if 
we  take  quality  of  life  instead  of  locality  as  the 
starting-point  of  our  conception  of  the  Beyond,  these 
hard  and  fast  distinctions  and  divisions  immediately 
disappear,  with  two  important  results. 

First,  between  Dives  and  Lazarus  there  may  be  still 
a  great  gulf  fixed,  but  the  gulf  is  one  of  quality  of  life, 
expressing  itself  in  feeling  and  character  ;  it  is  not  one 
which  is  constituted  by  distance  in  space.  Once  think 
away  these  local  conceptions  and  it  would  be  as  possible 
for  saint  and  sinner  to  get  into  personal  contact  in  the 


,38  IMMORTALITY  iv 

next  world  if  they  desired,  as  it  is  in  this  world  for  a 
successful  and  a  disappointed  lover  to  be  members  of  the 
same  house  party,  though  one  may  be  in  Abraham's 
bosom  and  the  other  in  a  state  of  torment.  This 
consideration  removes  what  is  a  very  real  difficulty  to 
many  minds.  Take,  for  example,  the  case  of  a  good 
mother  who  has  a  worthless  son.  It  is  impossible 
that  both  can,  in  the  traditional  phrase,  "go  to 
Heaven  "  ;  yet  it  is  equally  impossible  that  Heaven 
should  be  Heaven  to  the  mother  if  the  son  is  not  there. 
Take  away,  however,  the  idea  of  locality  from  concep- 
tions like  Heaven,  Purgatory,  or  Hell,  and  we  see  that, 
however  different  may  be  the  inner  state  or  quality  of 
life  led  by  the  mother  and  the  son,  they  can  still  be  in 
personal  correspondence.  The  mother  may  yet  be 
able  to  do  something  towards  restoring  and  reforming 
the  son  —  a  possibility  which  not  merely  suggests  a 
solution  of  some  of  the  problems  of  this  life,  but  also 
gives  a  concrete  illustration  of  what  we  mean  by  saying 
that  in  the  next  world  there  will  still  remain  work  to 
be  done  and  an  opportunity  for  love  and  service.  But 
of  this  more  will  be  said  later  on. 

Secondly,  if  we  think  away  the  implications  of  locality 
associated  with  the  old  ideas  of  Heaven,  Purgatory,  and 
Hell,  there  seems  no  reason  to  maintain  the  notion  that 
there  are  three  and  only  three  clearly  defined  "  states  " 
in  the  next  life.  If  we  think  of  the  future  in  terms  of 
quality  of  life  we  should  naturally  suppose  that  there 
would  be  an  infinite  number  of  degrees  in  quality, 
shading  off"  into  one  another,  and  that, this  would  mean 
a  possibility  of  progress — certainly  a  progress  upward, 
probably  also  (though  this  is  less  certain)  downward. 
This  consideration  meets  a  difficulty  widely  felt,  which 
is  commonly  expressed  in  this  form  :  "  The  great 
majority  of  people  seem  when  they  die  to  be  neither 
good  enough  for  Heaven  nor  bad  enough  for  Hell." 
To  this  difficulty  there  is  no  satisfactory  answer  unless 
we   assume   the  possibility  of  Progress   in   the  life  to 


IV        LIFE  OF  THE  WORLD  TO  COME     139 

come.  But  if  we  surrender  the  notion  of  three  distinct 
and  definite  denominations,  there  is  no  reason  why  we 
should  not  make  Progress  one  of  the  most  fundamental 
and  characteristic  elements  in  our  conception  of  the 
future  life. 

Purgatory 

The  idea  of  Progress,  however,  in  the  world  to  come 
must  be  clearly  distinguished  from  the  doctrine  of 
Purgatory,  at  any  rate  as  understood  in  the  Roman 
Church.  Even  if  the  materialistic  conceptions  and 
superstitious  observances  which  have  gathered  round 
it  in  popular  belief  are  removed,  there  are  in  the  offici- 
ally accepted  doctrine  of  Purgatory  two  points  which 
are  open  to  serious  objection.  Firstly,  it  is  held  that 
at  the  moment  of  death  it  is  decided  whether  the  soul 
is  ultimately  destined  for  Heaven  or  Hell.  If  for 
Heaven,  at  that  moment  its  character  is  transformed  by 
supernatural  grace  so  as  to  make  it  completely  and 
finally  fit  for  the  place  it  is  destined  to  hold  there. 
Secondly,  the  pains  of  Purgatory  are  not,  though  the 
derivation  of  the  word  suggests  it,  held  to  effect  a  moral 
purification  of  the  soul.  They  are  purely  penal,  and 
constitute  as  it  were  the  repayment  in  the  next  life  in  a 
currency  of  pain  of  a  debt  which  has  been  incurred  in 
this  life  in  a  currency  of  sin.^  The  postulate  of  a 
miraculous  transformation  of  character  at  the  moment 
of  death,  and  the  purely  vindictive  debtor  and  creditor 
conception  of  Divine  justice,  leave  a  Purgatory  so 
conceived  open  to  quite  as  many  objections  as  the  tradi- 
tional Protestant  dichotomy  of  the  future  life  into 
Heaven  or  Hell. 

Outside  the  Roman  Church,  the  word  Purgatory 
is  often  used  in  its  ancient  mediaeval  sense  to  denote  a 
state  of  real  progress  and  moral  purification.       There  is 

^  An  eminent  Roman  Catholic  theologian  tells  me  that  the  present  ciominancc 
of  this  view  is  largely  due  to  tiie  inllucnce  of  the  great  Spanish  Jesuit  Suarez.  Cf. 
also  Fr.  von  HUgel,  TAc  Mystical  Element  in  Religion,  pp.  240  f. 


140 


IMMORTALITY  iv 


nuich  to  he  said  for  a  revival  of  such  an  idea.  It  will, 
however,  he  of  little  value  so  long  as  the  main  emphasis 
is  laid  cither  on  the  idea  of  getting  rid  of  undesirable 
qualities  in  the  soul  or  on  the  element  of  pain  which 
that  process  will  require.  These  two  false  tendencies 
are  due,  partly  to  the  wholly  unchristian  emphasis  on 
the  purely  negative  element  in  morality  which  has 
pervaded  so  much  of  the  practical  teaching  of  the 
pulpit  and  the  Sunday  School,  partly  to  a  misconcep- 
tion of  the  part  played  by  suffering  in  the  development 
of  character. 

So  long  as  Christian  teaching  puts  the  avoidance 
of  evil  before  enthusiasm  for  good,  thus  overlaying  the 
Gospel  with  the  Law,  Purgatory  will  be  thought  of  in 
the  same  negative  way.  But  what  is  really  wanted  is  a 
conception  of  a  Progress  in  the  next  life  in  which  the 
leading  idea  shall  be  that  of  addition  rather  than  ot 
subtraction,  and  which  will  emphasise  the  need  of 
enriching  that  which  is  good  in  the  character  rather 
than  merely  the  purging  away  of  that  which  is  evil. 
We  are  often  misled  by  our  metaphors  :  moral  evil  is 
not  a  stain  that  .can  be  removed  by  a  negative  and 
external  process  like  washing  or  burning.  It  is  rather 
a  disease  of  the  will  which  can  only  be  cured  by 
a  restoration  to  health,  which  is  a  positive  process 
akin  to  growth. 

Again,  moral  growth  inevitably  and  of  course 
involves  an  element  of  pain  ;  for  repentance  and  the 
recognition  of  the  real  nature  of  one's  own  mis- 
conduct is  a  necessary  condition  of  such  growth. 
And  the  realisation  of  the  contemptibility  of  one's 
own  character,  and  of  the  extent  and  real  character 
of  the  wrong  one  has  done,  which  is  an  essential 
preliminary  to  repentance,  is  not  likely  to  be  less 
painful  in  the  world  to  come  than  it  is  in  this.  And 
the  more  there  is  to  repent  of,  the  more  lasting  and 
the  more  acute  must  be  the  pain.  But  Christianity 
associates  forgiveness  with  repentance  ;  and  in  the  most 


IV        LIFE  OF  THE  WORLD  TO  COME     141 

characteristically  Christian  teaching  the  joy  of  the 
forgiven  is  not  held  to  be  a  lesser  thing  than  the  pain 
of  the  penitent.  Suffering  also  of  other  kinds,  if  rightly 
borne,  plays  an  important  part  in  the  development  of 
character.  But  this  is  only  one  side  of  the  matter. 
Dazzled  by  the  discovery  of  the  supreme  value  of 
suffering  rightly  borne,  too  many  of  the  saints  have 
been  blind  both  to  the  intrinsic  and  to  the  educative 
value  of  joy.  Hence  Christianity  has  unfortunately 
come  to  be  associated  in  many  minds  vi^ith  a  refusal 
of  the  joie  de  vivre^  and  with  a  denial  both  of  the 
intrinsic  value  and  of  the  beneficent  function  in  the 
development  of  character  of  simple  pleasure,  cheerful- 
ness, and  humour.  But  may  we  not  hope  that  that 
portion  of  the  Church  of  Christ  which  has  gone  before 
has  recovered  from  this  delusion  ^ 


Progress  and  Attainment 

Assuming,  then,  that  the  idea  of  Progress  is  an 
essential  element  in  our  conception  of  the  life  to  come, 
a  further  question  at  once  arises.  Progress  implies 
direction.  If  it  be  true  that  most  people  when  they 
die  are  neither  good  enough  for  Heaven  nor  bad  enough 
for  Hell,  are  we  to  suppose  that  movement  in  the  life 
to  come  will  be  in  both  directions  ^  Will  the  person 
whose  life  in  this  world  seems  to  be  a  steady  develop- 
ment in  the  direction  of  increasing  moral  blindness  and 
deliberate  rejection  of  good  and  light  have  a  chance  of 
amendment  in  the  next  ^  And,  if  so,  supposing  he 
rejects  this  second  opportunity,  will  the  process  of 
degeneration  ultimately  reach  its  logical  climax  .''  In 
other  words,  does  Hell  exist  ;  arud,  if  so,  what  is  it  like 
and  who,  if  any  one,  will  go  there  }  This  is  an  intensely 
important  question,  but  as  I  have  already  indicated 
(pp.  128  f.)  the  kind  of  answer  I  should  be  disposed  to 
give  to  it,  and  as  other  aspects  of  it  are  discussed  in 
Essay  V.  of  this  volume,  I  will  pass  it  by  and  confine 


142 


IMMORTALITY  iv 


my  attention  to  the  meaning  of  the  idea  of  Progress 
in  the  upward  direction. 

We  are  at  once  brought  up  against  the  question, 
Is  there  such  a  thing  as  a  final  and  perfect  Heaven  ?  The 
very  idea  of  Progress  seems  to  imply  an  ultimate  goal 
towards  which  the  advance  is  being  made.  Hence, 
strict  logic  seems  to  demand  an  ultimate  Heaven  in  the 
sense  of  a  final  goal  for  achieved  perfection.  We 
human  beings  strive  for  perfection  and  we  long  for  rest  ; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  when  we  think  of  it,  the  idea 
of  an  eternity  of  existence  in  a  static  state  of  achieved 
perfection  seems  intolerable.  The  fact  that,  in  such  a 
state,  nothing  would  remain  to  be  hoped  for,  and 
nothing  would  be  left  to  be  done,  implies  to  many  minds 
the  negation  of  one  of  the  fundamental  conditions  of 
happiness.  The  human  heart  has  an  insatiable  demand 
for  apparently  inconsistent  things — activity  and  repose, 
achievement  and  pursuit.  We  may  go  a  little  deeper 
and  say  that  the  mind  and  will  of  man  is  essentially 
creative,  and  that  creation  implies  both  the  existence 
of  an  end  which  it  is  possible  to  attain  and  the  fact  that 
it  is  not  yet  attained.  The  difficulty  (which,  be  it 
noted,  is  the  same  as  the  standing  philosophical  difficulty 
of  getting  a  conception  of  the  Divine  Being  which  will 
include  both  perfection  and  activity)  is  one  which  does 
not  admit  of  solution  within  the  limits  of  analogies 
suggested  by  our  present  experience.  But,  for  practical 
purposes,  we  may  leave  it  on  one  side. 

Experience  shows  that  the  result  of  any  advance 
towards  a  goal  which  is  clearly  seen,  whether  in  know- 
ledge, in  artistic  achievement,  or  in  morals,  leads  to  the 
discovery  of  a  goal  and  of  an  ideal  beyond  that  origin- 
ally perceived.  And,  in  this  world  at  any  rate,  it  is  the 
case  that  those  who  have  made  most  progress  in  any 
department  are  also  those  who  recognise  most  clearly  the 
infinite  distance  which  still  separates  them  from  their 
ideal.  Every  achievement  brings  with  it  an  enhance- 
ment of  the  ideal  to  be  achieved.     Not  only  that,  but 


IV        LIFE  OF  THE  WORLD  TO  COME     143 

we  grow  more  rapidly  in  our  perception  of  the  character 
and  richness  of  the  ideal  than  in  our  achievement  of 
what  we  have  perceived.  The  distance  between  the 
starting-point  and  the  goal  perceived  increases  rather 
than  diminishes  as  we  advance  ;  and  it  is  probable  that 
this  would  not  be  otherwise  in  the  life  to  come.  As  far 
ahead  as,  and  further  than,  our  imaginations  can  picture, 
fresh  vistas  and  richer  possibilities  will  open  up,  new 
heights  to  climb  will  continue  to  loom  in  sight.  And 
long  before  we  have  reached  that  finality  which  strict 
logic  seems  to  postulate,  we  may  expect  to  have  attained 
an  insight  into  the  ultimate  nature  of  reality  which  will 
enable  us  to  apprehend  the  solution  of  this  as  well  as 
of  many  other  problems  to  which  no  answer  seems  now 
forthcoming. 

It  would  seem,  therefore,  that  if  our  speculations 
with  regard  to  the  future  life  are  to  have  any  practical 
value,  it  would  be  well  to  confine  them  to  the  attempt 
to  make  more  precise  our  ideas  of  what  that  state  of 
life  will  be  which  follows  immediately  on  the  present. 
Even  if  we  feel  bound  to  postulate  the  existence  of  a 
final  and  ultimate  state  of  perfection,  in  our  present 
state  of  knowledge  and  with  even  our  imaginations 
limited  by  the  experience  of  this  world,  speculations  as 
to  its  nature  are  worthless.  In  what  follows,  therefore, 
I  shall  endeavour  merely  to  ask  whether  it  is  possible 
to  discover  any  principles  which  will  enable  us  to  realise 
in  a  more  concrete  way  the  nature  and  character  of  the 
life  which  immediately  follows  the  present,  and,  as  before 
remarked,  I  shall  simplify  the  problem  by  leaving  out 
of  account  the  question  of  the  fate  of  the  unrepentant 
sinner  as  being  sufficiently  dealt  with  elsewhere  in  this 
volume. 

If,  as  I  suggest,  we  confine  our  attention  to  the  con- 
ception of  what  I  may  call  the  -proximate  as  distinguished 
from  the  ultimate  Heaven,  we  are  relieved  of  the  neces- 
sity of  any  further  discussion  of  the  difficult  question 
of  the  relation  of  Time  to  Eternity,  and  its  bearing  on 


144  IMMORTALITY  iv 

the  nature  of  the  future  life.  The  conception  of  an 
existence  outside  Time  is  one  which  baffles  the  imagina- 
tion. It  provides,  no  doubt,  a  solution  to  certain 
difficult  problems  of  philosophy,  but,  to  my  own  mind, 
it  creates  as  many  or  nearly  as  many  as  it  solves,  and  I 
feel  a  reluctance  to  commit  myself  to  an  opinion  as  to 
whether  an  existence  out  of  Time  either  is  or  is  not  a 
possibility,  even  in  the  case  of  God.  But  I  think  that 
it  is  unnecessary  to  do  so,  for  the  question  is  really 
irrelevant  to  the  particular  enquiry  on  which  we  are 
engaged.  Time  may  possibly  not  be  a  condition  of 
the  life  of  God.  If  so,  it  may  not  be  a  condition  of 
the  life  of  Heaven — if  by  Heaven  we  mean  that  final 
state  of  achieved  perfection  which  we  may  perhaps  be 
bound  to  postulate  as  the  ultimate  goal  of  progress — 
though,  for  the  reasons  urged  in  the  previous  Essay ,^ 
I  incline  to  doubt  it.  But  the  quest  on  which  we 
are  now  engaged  is  not  an  attempt  to  imagine  for  our- 
selves the  nature  of  existence  in  this  ultimate  Heaven, 
if  such  there  be,  but  merely  in  a  proximate  Heaven,  i.e. 
in  that  long  period  of  progress  which  we  have  agreed 
will  follow  this  present  life.  In  this  proximate  Heaven 
Time  is  a  necessity  as  much  as  it  is  for  life  on  earth, 
for  progress  is  impossible  except  in  Time.  I  hold, 
therefore,  that  whatever  philosophical  view  we  adopt  as 
to  the  ultimate  relation  of  Time  and  Eternity,  we  are 
not  only  justified  but  bound  to  think  of  the  life 
immediately  after  death  as  life  in  Time,  even  if  the 
view  be  accepted,  which  personally  I  incline  to  think 
erroneous,  that  we  ought  not  to  think  of  it  in  terms 
of  space. 

1  Cf.  pp.  96  ff. 


IV        LIFE  OF  THE  WORLD  TO  COME      145 


PART  II 
THE    NATURE   OF   ETERNAL   LIFE 

God,  Man,  and  Christ 

In  the  previous  Essay  it  has  been  shown  that  the  proof 
of  personal  Immortality  rests  in  the  last  resort  on  the 
Christian  conception  of  the  character  of  God.  Our 
view  of  the  nature  and  quality  of  the  life  of  the  world 
to  come  is  equally  determined  by  this  same  thing.  The 
life  of  those  in  Heaven  must  be  thought  of  as  a 
participation  in  the  Divine  life  as  full  as  is  compatible 
with  their  still  remaining  finite  human  beings.  We 
must  first  of  all,  then,  ask  what  clear  and  certain  know- 
ledge have  we  as  to  the  character  and  quality  of  the 
Divine  life  ?  This  at  once  brings  us  up  against  the 
question.  What  do  we  mean  by  saying  that  God  is 
revealed  in  Christ  ?  Only  in  so  far  as  we  grasp  the 
real  meaning  of  this  central  feature  in  Christianity  shall 
we  be  able  to  make  any  progress  at  all  in  our  present 
quest.  Hence  a  summary  statement  on  this  subject  seems 
to  be  a  necessary  preliminary  to  any  further  enquiry. 

The  notion  that  the  same  Person  could  be  both  com- 
pletely divine  and  completely  human,  perfectus  DeuSy 
perfecius  Homo^  as  the  Athanasian  Creed  puts  it,  is  one 
which  presented  insurmountable  intellectual  difficulties 
to  the  mind  of  that  Greco-Roman  world  to  which  the 
early  Church  had  to  endeavour  to  explain  and  justify 
its  belief.  Most  of  the  doctrinal  disputes  and  heresies 
of  the  first  five  centuries  were  due  to  the  fact  that  no 
conception  of  the  Person  of  Christ  seemed  intellectually 
tenable  to  the  average  educated  man  of  the  time  which 
did  not  make  out  that  Christ  was  either  less  than  fully 
divine,  or  else  not  really  and  truly  human.  The  moral 
and  religious  insight,  however,  of  the  Christian  com- 
munity could   not   rest  satisfied  with  any   view  which 

L 


146  IMMORTALITY  iv 

seemed  to  impair,  however  subtly,  the  full  reality  either 
of  His  humanity  or  of  His  divinity.  Hence,  since  the 
philosophy  of  the  day  v/as  inadequate  to  suggest  any 
explanation  which  was  intellectually  satisfactory,  the 
Church  was  driven  to  affirm  the  complete  personal 
union  of  the  two  natures  as  an  inexplicable  mystery 
to  be  accepted  by  faith.  And  it  was  defended  by 
definitions  which  aimed  less  at  ofi^ering  a  satisfactory 
explanation  of  what  was  believed  than  at  ruling  out 
such  unsatisfactory  explanations  as  had  up  to  that  date 
been  formulated. 

During  the  last  century,  however,  it  has  been  be- 
coming more  and  more  clear  that  the  intellectual 
difficulties  felt  in  the  matter  by  the  ancient  world — and, 
indeed,  by  the  majority  of  people  in  the  modern  world — 
were  due  to  the  fact  that  an  attempt  was  being  made  to 
solve  the  problem  of  the  relation  of  God  and  man  in 
Christ  while  leaving  uncriticised  pre-Christian  concep- 
tions of  the  nature  both  of  God  and  man.  If  the  same 
Person  is  both  completely  divine  and  completely  human, 
it  follows  that  both  God  and  man  are  very  diff'erent 
beings  from  what  is  commonly  supposed  ;  there  must 
be  in  man  possibilities  as  yet  unrealised,  and  in  God 
actualities  as  yet  unsuspected.  So  far  as  man  was  con- 
cerned this  was  early  recognised,  especially  by  the 
Alexandrian  Fathers.  Athanasius'  famous  "  He  be- 
came human  that  we  might  be  made  divine  "  states  in 
a  word  what  was  an  accepted  tenet  of  his  school.  But 
it  has  taken  a  much  longer  time  to  realise  that  the 
doctrine  of  the  Divinity  of  Christ  necessitates  a  far  more 
drastic  revolution  in  pre-Christian  (and,  indeed,  in  most 
current)  conceptions  of  God  than  in  pre-Christian  con- 
ceptions of  man.  Before  Christ,  the  Jew  had  pictured 
God  as  a  monarch  living  in  gorgeous  splendour,  sur- 
rounded by  celestial  state  and  pomp,  the  embodiment 
of  power,  magnificence,  and  splendour.  The  Greek  had 
looked  on  Him  as  the  Absolute  Being  of  philosophy, 
immutable,  impassible,  who   could  not  be   thought   of 


IV        LIFE  OF  THE  WORLD  TO  COME     147 

even  as  Creator  unless  He  worked  through  an  inter- 
mediary. But  neither  of  these  is  the  God  whom  Christ 
called  Father  ;  neither  of  these  is  the  God  of  whom 
Christ  is  the  "  image  "  here  on  earth. 

Athanasius  made  a  heroic  effort  to  save  the  Church 
from  invasion  by  the  extreme  form  of  the  half  Greek, 
half  Jewish  conception  of  God  which  Arianism  stood 
for.  But  he  did  not  go  far  enough  in  the  direction  of 
thinking  out  the  full  implications  of  his  main  contention, 
that  the  Son  is  really  and  essentially  Divine  and  that  what 
we  see  in  Him  is  the  substance  and  not  the  shadow  of 
the  Divine  life.  Indeed,  no  man  educated  in  Greek 
Philosophy  and  accepting  the  Old  Testament  as  verbally 
inspired  could  have  gone  further  than  he  did.  Great 
men  should  be  honoured  for  what  they  did,  not 
blamed  for  what  they  left  undone.  But  the  present 
age,  unshackled  by  that  philosophy  and  taught  by  the 
Higher  Criticism  to  see  in  the  Old  Testament  not 
one  single  authoritative  revelation  but  a  long  struggle 
towards  ever  higher  and  higher  conceptions  of  the 
Divine,  can,  and — if  it  is  not  to  turn  its  back  on 
Athanasius — must  go  further  forward  along  the  road 
he  fought  and  suffered  so  much  to  keep  unbarred. 

The  inherent  logic  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation 
necessitates  a  revaluation  of  the  natural  man's  ideas,  not 
merely  of  things  on  earth,  but  also  of  things  in  Heaven. 
If  the  Son  of  Man  on  earth  repudiated  the  methods 
and  ideals  of  the  Kings  of  the  Gentiles  who  lord  and 
strut,  if  He  taught  that  he  who  is  the  greatest  on  earth 
must  be  servant  of  all,  and  that  the  King  of  Kings  is 
He  who  dies  for  all  ;  and  if  Christ  is,  as  St.  Paul  puts  it, 
"  the  portrait  of  the  unseen  God,"  ^  then  that  must  mean 
that  God  and  the  life  of  Heaven  are  not  what  we  are  apt 
to  fancy.  If  "  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of 
God  is  to  be  seen  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ,"  then  the 
glory  of  God  must  be  a  very  different  thing  from  what 
most  of  us  would  otherwise   suppose.     If  the  life   of 

^  KiKfjiv  Tov  dfoO  Tov  dopdrov,  Col.  i.  15- 


148  IMMORTALITY  iv 

Christ  on  earth  is  the  picture  in  time  of  something 
which  is  eternal  in  the  life  of  God,  then  God  Himself 
is  seen  to  share  the  suffering  of  the  world  and,  at  the 
cost  of  His  own  agony,  to  be  overcoming  the  evil  in  it. 
And  the  pomp  and  circumstance,  the  dignity  and  domina- 
tion, which  seem  to  us  magnificent  and  grand,  are  shown 
to  be  a  hollow  fraud.  A  revolution  in  our  scheme  of 
values  is  effected  which  at  once  puts  down  the  mighty  from 
their  seat  and  exalts  the  inconspicuous  and  the  quiet. 

But,  if  this  be  so,  it  follows  that  the  popular  con- 
ception of  Heaven  errs,  not  so  much  through  b'eing 
symbolic — that  is  inevitable — as  from  the  fact  that  its 
symbolism  suggests  as  the  dominant  characteristic  of 
the  life  of  Heaven  something  lower  than  what  Christ 
taught  us  is  the  highest  life  on  earth.  It  has  in  it  too 
much  of  Solomon  in  all  his  glory,  too  little  of  the  beauty 
of  the  lilies  of  the  field.  At  its  lower  levels  it  suggests 
the  splendour  of  an  Imperial  court,  and  even  at  its 
highest  level  it  has  left  out  something  vital.  Painters, 
preachers,  hymn-writers,  starting  from  St.  John's  vision 
of  the  Adoration  of  the  Lamb  or  from  a  glorified 
reniiniscence  of  High  Mass  in  some  great  cathedral, 
have  tried  to  depict  a  Heaven  compact  of  awe,  sublimity, 
and  the  rapture  of  mystic  adoration.  Heaven  must 
include  these,  but  it  must  include  much  more.  We 
cannot  conceive  of  a  Heaven  in  which  Christ  would  be 
content  to  dwell  unless  there  was  to  be  found  in  it  the 
counterpart  of  other  things  He  loved  on  earth,  the 
wild  flowers  and  the  birds,  the  children  playing,  friends 
gathered  round  the  common  board,  the  fellowship  of 
labour  and  of  love,  and  the  quiet  hour  on  the  mountain- 
side at  dawn. 

Eternal  Life 

If,  then,  we  take  our  stand  upon  the  doctrine  of  the 
Incarnation,  we  see  at  once  that  the  life  of  the  world  to 
come  must  be  thought  of  as  differing  from  the  highest 
kind  of  life  which  we  know  on  earth  in  degree  rather 


IV        LIFE  OF  THE  WORLD  TO  COME     149 

than  in  kind.  And  this,  be  it  noted,  is  exactly  how  it 
is  thought  of  in  the  Gospel  of  St.  John.  The  con- 
ception of  Eternal  Life  in  this  Gospel  gives  us  exactly 
the  guiding  principle  we  want  if  we  are  to  attain  any 
clear,  definite,  and  vital  notion  of  the  nature  and  quality 
of  the  life  of  the  world  to  come.  To  him  we  call  St. 
John,  Eternal  Life  is  something  of  which  we  can  already 
experience  a  foretaste  in  this  world  ;  it  is  a  life  to  which 
death  is  not  an  interruption  but  rather  the  removal  of 
restrictions  and  impediments  ;  it  is  a  life  of  which  the 
important  characteristic  is,  not  the  place  where  it  is 
lived,  but  the  quality  of  the  life  itself. 

Eternal  Life  is  said,  by  the  author  of  the  fourth 
Gospel,  to  consist  in  "  the  knowledge  of  God  and  of 
His  Son  Jesus  Christ,"  What  does  this  imply  .'*  Not, 
surely,  or  at  any  rate  not  in  the  first  place,  philosophic 
understanding  of  the  nature  of  the  Supreme  Being  or 
historical  information  about  the  historic  Jesus,  such  as 
one  may  get  by  reading  books  or  hearing  discourses. 
The  knowledge  of  God  and  Christ  which  St.  John  speaks 
of  is  such  an  intimacy  with,  such  an  appropriation  of, 
the  personal  Divine  life  revealed  in  Christ,  that  he  who 
has  it  sees  eye  to  eye  with  Christ,  loves  the  things  that 
He  loves,  shares  His  sense  of  values.  The  life,  then, 
of  the  world  to  come  must  be  thought  of,  not  in 
terms  of  average  life  on  earth,  but  only  of  the  highest 
life  on  earth  ;  and  our  test  of  what  is  highest  on  earth 
is  to  be  determined  by  that  standard  of  value  which 
we  have  learnt  from  Christ. 

The  modern  man,  who  is  not  habituated  to  express- 
ing the  ideals  which  most  appeal  to  him  in  religious 
phraseology,  will  be  disposed  to  define  the  highest  life 
as  consisting  in  absolute  devotion  to  the  triad  Goodness, 
Beauty,  and  Truth.  Is  this  essentially  different  from 
St.  John's  definition,  "  the  Knowledge  of  God  and  His 
Son  Jesus  Christ "  ^  It  is  possible  to  be  devoted  to 
Goodness,  Beauty,  or  Truth  without  any  conscious  or 
explicit  reference  to  God  or  Christ  ;  but,  in  so  far  as 


I50  IMMORTALITY  iv 

one  or  :ill  of  these  are  thought  of  and  pursued  apart  from 
any  conscious  recognition  of  the  one  Divine  in  which 
they  have  their  source  and  final  harmony,  there  is  some- 
thing incompletely  realised.  It  cannot  be  too  often 
insisted  that  all  disinterested  devotion  to  Goodness, 
Beauty,  or  Truth  is  really  and  truly  (whether  the 
devotee  is  aware  of  it  or  not)  a  recognition  of,  and 
an  act  of  service  to,  the  One  Divine,  from  whom  these 
flow  and  in  whom  they  have  their  unifying  principle 
and  ultimate  explanation.  On  the  other  hand,  it  must 
be  no  less  emphasised  that  it  is  not  possible  really  to 
know  and  serve  God  unless  we  recognise  Him,  not  only 
as  the  Personal  Reality  over  and  above  the  totality  of 
things,  but  also  as  actually  present  and  directly  mani- 
fested through  nature  and  through  man  in  the  actual 
world  given  to  us  by  sense  and  thought.^ 

If  the  present  life  be  regarded  as  a  pilgrimage,  a 
preparation  for  the  life  of  the  world  to  come,  our 
expectations  of  what  will  be  the  chief  activities  of  the 
next  life  cannot  but  influence  our  idea  of  what  ought 
to  be  our  chief  activity  in  this.  The  widespread  idea 
that  life  in  Heaven  is  to  be  thought  of  as  one  unending 
act  of  undifi'erentiated  religious  adoration  has  undoubt- 
edly led  to  a  narrowing  of  the  conception  of  the  meaning 
of  sanctity  on  earth — with  disastrous  consequences. 
The  great  tragedy  of  Christianity  in  modern  times  has 
been,  not  its  failure  to  attract  or  retain  the  allegiance  of 
the  vain,  the  frivolous,  and  the  materially  minded,  but 
its  failure  to  appeal  to  the  idealist  of  to-day.  And  this 
has  been  to  no  small  extent  due  to  the  fact  that  the  ideal 
which  the  Church  has  held  up  to — or  perhaps,  to  speak 
more  accurately,  that  aspect  of  the  ideal  life  which  it  has 
been  most  successful  in  effectively  bringing  home  to — the 
imagination  of  Europe  has  been  narrow  and  one-sided. 

In  a  matter  of  moral  and  spiritual  values  deliberately 
to  challenge  what  at  first  sight  seems  to  be  the  verdict 

^  For  the  further  working  out  of  this  idea,  see  my  Essay  on  "  Worship "  in 
Ccnccrmng  Prayer. 


IV        LIFE  OF  THE  WORLD  TO  COME     151 

of  the  saints,  may  appear  a  rash  proceeding.  I  would 
maintain,  however,  that  what  I  am  challenging  is  not 
the  verdict  of  the  consensus  sanctorum^  but,  at  most,  the 
verdict  of  that  section  of  the  saints  whom  ecclesiastical 
authority  has  seen  fit  to  canonise.  Nor  is  it  really  even 
this.  In  the  case  of  many  of  the  canonised  saints  the 
nearer  we  get  to  their  authentic  biographies  the  wider 
and  richer  do  we  find  was  the  ideal  in  accordance  with 
which  they  actually  lived,  and  the  less  conspicuous  and 
dominating  an  element  in  their  lives  is  that  particular 
set  of  interests  and  activities  which  are  conventionally 
associated  with  the  idea  of  sanctity.  We  not  infre- 
quently find,  too,  that  the  saints  themselves  lamented 
as  a  weakness  what  was  really  breadth  of  moral  vision, 
and,  in  deference  to  the  authority  of  traditional  views, 
deplored  what  they  supposed  to  be  a  failure  in  them- 
selves to  the  extent  of  making  considerable  and  ill- 
judged  efforts  to  force  their  thoughts,  tastes,  and  desires 
into  accordance  with  the  conventional  pattern.  The 
latter  part  of  the  life  of  St.  Francis  of  Assisi  is  a 
notable  case.  And  biographers  have  been  even  more 
active  in  this  direction,  and  have  often  completely  suc- 
ceeded in  doing  on  paper  what  the  saint  was  fortunately 
unable  to  accomplish  in  real  life.^ 

Again,  the  interpretation  of  their  experiences  given 
by  the  great  Mystics  has  often  been  to  some  extent 
vitiated — probably  even  the  actual  form  of  the  experi- 
ence itself  has  been  to  some  extent  perverted — by  a 
conception  of  the  nature  of  the  Divine  derived  ulti- 
mately from  Plotinus.  The  concrete  conception  of  a 
richly  personal,  a  feeling  and  acting  Deity,  which  the 
Biblical  writers  are  all  agreed  in  holding,  is  really  in 
marked  contrast  to  the  Neo-Platonic  idea  that  God  is 
one  whom  we  can  best  conceive  of  by  denying  to  Him 
any   of  the   qualities   or   attributes   of  which  we  have 

^  Contrast  the  Life  of  St.  Francis  by  S.  Bonaventura  with  the  Speculum  Per- 
fectionis  or  the  first  Life  of  Celano.  I  am  inclined  to  accept  the  view  of  Sabaticr  as 
to  the  later  life  of  St.  Francis  as  in  the  wain  correct  in  spite  of  the  great  authority  of 
Father  Cuthbcrt. 


152 


IMMORTALITY  iv 


experience  ;  and  that  He  is  a  Being  whom  we  can, 
therefore,  best  draw  near  to  by  cutting  ourselves  ofiF 
from  all  interest  in  earthly  things.  The  substitution 
of  the  Neo- Platonic  for  the  Christian  idea  of  God 
could  not  but  have  important  consequences.  True, 
few,  if  any,  of  the  Mediaeval  Saints  effected  more  than 
a  partial  substitution  between  the  two  views.  In 
practice  they  tried  to  combine  them.  But  the  effect 
of  the  Neo-Platonic  element  in  their  theology,  and  the 
ascetic  element  in  their  practice,  has  profoundly  affected, 
and  that  not  for  the  better,  the  traditional  conception 
of  the  Beatific  Vision.  The  via  negativa  which,  on  its 
intellectual  side,  will  only  think  of  God  in  negative 
categories,  and  which,  on  its  practical  side,  mainly  seeks 
Him  by  turning  its  back  on  the  ordinary  life  of  man- 
kind, cannot  but  introduce  an  element  of  abstraction 
and  monotony  into  our  conception  of  what  is  the 
highest  life  of  the  spirit  in  the  next  life  as  in  this. 

Something  more  is  said  on  this  subject  in  the  con- 
cluding section  of  the  last  Essay  in  this  volume,  so  all 
I  would  emphasise  here  is  that  the  life  of  God  must  not 
only  be  said  to  be,  but  actually  imagined  as  something 
fuller,  richer,  and  more  alive,  as  something  more  concrete, 
not  less  so,  than  the  life  of  man  ;  and  that  the  life  of 
Heaven  must  be  thought  of  as  more,  not  less,  teeming 
with  varied  content  than  that  of  earth.  Life  here 
would  be  intolerable  without  variety,  and  the  life  of  a 
world  which  is  better  than  this  would  have  in  it  more 
and  not  less  variety  than  that  of  this  world. 

One  of  the  reasons  why  so  few  people  are  interested 
in  the  Heaven  of  popular  Theology  is  that  the  picture 
it  presents  to  the  imagination  of  the  life  of  the  blessed 
suggests  a  life  of  unbroken  monotony.  There  are 
those  who  would  defend,  or  at  any  rate  palliate,  the 
traditional  picture  by  reminding  us  that  in  supreme 
moments,  whether  of  adoration  or  otherwise,  we  seem 
to  be  lifted  as  it  were  out  of  Time  into  Eternity  and  to 
feel  that  we  could  be   content   could   such  a  moment 


IV        LIFE  OF  THE  WORLD  TO  COME     153 

be  prolonged  infinitely.  But  our  more  sober  reflec- 
tion tells  us  that  even  if  this  were  the  case  there  are 
supreme  moments  of  different  qualities  and  different 
characters,  and  we  would  enjoy  not  one  but  all  of  these. 
There  is  the  moment  when  the  discovery  of  new  truth 
dawns  upon  the  seeker — 

Then  felt  I  like  some  \\atcher  of  the  skies 
When  a  new  planet  swims  into  his  ken  ; 

there  is  the  moment  of  entrancement  at  the  vision  of 
perfect  beauty  ;  there  is  the  moment  of  the  union  of 
soul  and  soul  in  love.  The  passion  of  religious  adora- 
tion may  interpenetrate  and  transcend,  and,  in  that  sense, 
may  include,  all  these,  yet,  unless  they  are  experienced 
seriatim  and  in  separation,  something  of  supreme  value 
will  be  lost  for  ever.  And  this  variety  is  needed,  because 
the  value  of  supreme  moments  lies  not  only  in  them- 
selves, but  also  in  their  permanent  and  abiding  conse- 
quences in  the  enrichment  and  elevation  of  the  whole 
life — and  that  a  life  which  is  meant  to  be  lived  not  in 
isolation  but  in  harmony  with  other  souls.  To  dwell 
over  much  on  the  hilltops  of  supreme  individualistic 
experiences,  and  to  interpret  their  meaning  and  value  in 
the  light  of  an  overmastering  conception  such  as  that  of 
"  the  Alone  with  the  Alone,"  is  ultimately  to  impoverish 
them.  That  which  cannot  be  shared  with  others — if 
not  directly,  at  least  in  its  results — may  possibly  be  good 
but  it  is  not  the  best. 

Why  was  it  that  of  all  the  symbols  current  at  the 
time  for  expressing  the  joy  of  the  coming  Age,  our  Lord 
so  frequently  selected  the  most  homely  and  seemingly 
the  most  material — the  common  meal,  the  Supper  to 
which  a  certain  man  invited  his  friends,  the  table  round 
which  we  shall  "sit  at  meat"  in  the  Kingdom  with 
present  friends  and  with  the  great  souls  of  the  past  ? 
Why  on  that  night  when  He  was  to  be  betrayed  had 
He  desired  with  desire  to  eat  that  passover,  and,  failing 
that,  why  did  He  break  the   bread  and  pass  the  cup 


,54  IMMORTALITY  iv 

of  which  He  was  to  drink  no  more  till  He  drank  a 
new  kind  in  the  world  to  come  ?  Surely  it  all  means 
that  to  Him  the  frank,  free  union  in  love  and  friend- 
ship, perhaps  most  often  seen  on  earth  round  the 
familiar  board — that  Kingdom  which  consists  not  in 
eating  or  drinking,  but  in  righteousness  and  peace  and 
joy,  in  that  Spirit  which  was  the  spirit  in  and  by  which 
"He  lived  Himself — is  the  highest  thing  on  earth,  and 
is,  therefore,  a  foretaste  of  the  life  of  Heaven.  The 
nearest  thing  to  Heaven  that  we  can  attain  on  earth 
is  the  experience  of  love  and  fellowship,  of  the  complete 
harmony  of  mind  with  mind  and  heart  with  heart, 
between  those  who  feel  themselves  to  be  lifted  out  of 
and  above  themselves,  not  only  by  the  depth  of  their 
personal  affection  but  by  their  passionate  devotion  to 
some  common  interest  or  ideal.  This  may  be  found 
on  earth  without  any  religious  bond  explicitly  so  called, 
but  wherever  that  is  the  case  I  would  affirm  that  there 
is  really  an  apprehension  and  realisation  of  the  Divine 
Presence  even  though  it  be  unrecognised  as  such.  But 
it  is  only  when  personal  affection  and  consecration  to 
a  great  ideal  finds  its  natural  consummation  in  conscious 
fellowship  in  the  experience  of  the  Divine  Presence 
that  we  can  understand  what  St.  John  means  by  Eternal 
Life  and  can  "  know  that  we  have  passed  from  death 
unto  life  because  we  love  the  brethren." 

The  Content  of  the  Idea  of  Heaven 

I  will  now  proceed  to  work  out  in  rather  more  detail 
the  conception  of  the  character  of  the  life  of  the  world 
to  come  which  follows  if,  accepting  the  scheme  of  values 
implied  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation,  we  think  out 
the  full  meaning  of  St.  John's  view  of  Eternal  Life. 
And  lest  I  be  thought  to  be  attempting  to  read  my 
own  personal  hopes  or  foibles  into  the  next  life,  I  will, 
in  every  case,  base  what  I  advance  on  some  outstanding 
passage  in  the  New  Testament. 


IV        LIFE  OF  THE  WORLD  TO  COME     155 

Love 

No  thought  is  more  fundamental  to  the  teaching  of 
the  New  Testament  than  that  the  ideal  of  goodness 
itself  and  all  the  rules  of  morality  are  merely  divers 
expressions  of  the  one  inward  passion  of  beneficent 
desire  and  activity  to  which  is  given  the  name  Love. 
To  the  Master,  Love  God,  love  thy  neighbour,  are  the 
great  commandments.  "  Love,"  says  St.  Paul,  "  is  the 
fulfilment  of  the  law." 

In  the  famous  hymn  to  Charity  in  i  Cor.  xiii.  St. 
Paul  develops  the  great  idea  that,  whereas  all  other 
activities — prophecies,  tongues,  and  the  like — are  rela- 
tive to  the  temporary  and  transient  conditions  of  life  on 
earth,  Love  is  the  great  exception,  *'  Love  never  faileth." 
This,  and  this  alone,  will  be  precisely  of  the  same  kind 
in  Heaven  as  it  is  on  earth.  It  is  a  commonplace  of 
philosophers  that  we  cannot  think  of  God  as  exhibiting 
the  cardinal  virtues  except  in  a  symbolic  sense  ;  for  the 
very  meaning  of  qualities  like  courage,  temperance,  or 
even  justice,  is  relative  both  to  our  personal  limitations 
and  the  limitations  of  our  earthly  environment.  It  is 
otherwise  with  the  principle  of  Love — that  is  why  it 
is  possible  that  in  the  character  of  the  Ideal  Man  the 
very  essence  of  the  Divine  should  be  manifest  on  earth. 
And  the  Love  which  St.  Paul  speaks  of  as  that  which 
will  not  fail  or  be  changed  into  something  very 
different  in  the  world  to  come  is  not  the  love  of  man 
to  God — that  is  not  with  most  of  us  an  experience 
vivid  enough  to  illuminate  an  unknown  world — but  the 
love  of  man  to  man. 

The  life,  therefore,  of  the  world  to  come  must  be 
thought  of  as  life  in  a  society — the  New  Jerusalem, 
the  Kingdom  of  God,  the  Communion  of  Saints  ;  call 
it  what  you  will.  And  the  most  conspicuous  feature  of 
that  society  will  be  not  merely  that  the  exercise  of  active 
love  will  be  as  possible  there  as  it  is  on  earth,  but  that 
the  love  will  be  of  an  intenser  quality,  will  lavish  itself 


156  IMMORTALITY  iv 

on  a  wider  range  of  persons,  and  will  be  able  to  express 
itself  more  freely  and  in  more  diverse  ways.  Gesture 
and  speech,  which  as  often  disguise  as  reveal  our  real 
meaning,  may  perhaps  be  superseded,  at  least  they 
will  be  supplemented,  by  an  acuter  sympathy  and 
insight  which  shall  make  impossible  the  uncertainties, 
misunderstandings,  and  embarrassments  which  hinder 
love  on  earth  or  restrict  its  range  to  narrow  circles. 
A  society  in  which  every  individual  thought  and  did 
exactly  the  same  would  not  be  a  society  ;  individuality, 
therefore,  diversity  of  character,  capacity,  and  taste, 
must  still  remain.  But  the  differences  will  no  longer 
be  a  source  of  strain  and  friction  but  will  be  united 
into  one  great  harmony  like  the  notes  of  the  very 
various  instruments  in  a  great  orchestra. 

Work 

"  My  father  worketh  hitherto  and  I  work,"  our 
Lord  is  reported  to  have  said  to  those  who  objected  to 
His  healing  on  the  Sabbath  day.  Creation,  the  making 
that  to  be  which  hitherto  has  not  been,  is  not  to  be 
thought  of  as  something  which  God  did  once  for  all  in 
a  remote  past  but  as  a  constant  eternal  activity.  And 
some  shadow,  some  counterpart  of  this  creative  faculty 
has  been  given  to  man  on  earth.  The  farmer,  the 
builder,  the  inventor,  the  artist,  are  all  in  a  sense  creators. 
They  bring  into  existence  that  which,  but  for  them, 
would  not  have  been.  This  creative  capacity  and 
activity  of  man — an  activity  so  valuable  that  we  can 
see  in  it  a  shadow  and  counterpart  of  the  eternal  and 
characteristic  life  of  God — shall  it  not  continue  in  the 
world  to  come  ^  It  must  continue,  though  exercising 
itself  on  different  materials  and  adapting  itself  to  ends 
differing  from  those  of  which  we  now  have  experience, 
as  much  as  the  present  work  of  one  who  designs  an 
Atlantic  liner  differs  from  the  making  of  paper  boats 
which  occupied  his  childhood.     What  exactly  the  work 


IV        LIFE  OF  THE  WORLD  TO  COME     157 

will  be  which  we  have  to  do  we  cannot  even  profitably 
guess  ;  but  there  will  surely  be  different  kinds  of  work 
for  different  kinds  of  people.  And  for  some,  if  not  for 
all,  we  may  suppose  that  part  of  it  will  consist  in  labour 
for  the  souls  of  those  who  have  entered  the  next  life 
lower  down  in  the  moral  scale  than  themselves.  And 
why  may  not  the  work  of  some  be  to  watch  over  and 
inspire  the  lives  of  loved  ones  still  on  earth  .? 

Thought 

"  Now  we  see  through  a  glass  darkly  ;  but  then 
face  to  face  :  now  I  know  in  part  ;  but  then  shall  I 
know  even  as  also  I  am  known."  The  pursuit  of 
truth  along  the  line  of  scientific  investigation,  though 
existent  in  the  Greek-speaking  world,  had  probably 
never  been  a  very  serious  interest  in  the  circles  in 
which  St.  Paul  had  lived.  A  wider  and  more  dominant 
interest  of  his  age  was  the  passion  for  truth  along  the 
line  of  philosophic  enquiry.  Here,  again,  St.  Paul's 
early  education  had  probably  only  brought  him  in 
contact  with  the  outskirts  of  this  movement.  Though 
born  at  Tarsus  he  had  been  trained  a  Pharisee  ;  and 
though  the  Pharisees  were  genuinely  interested  in 
righteousness,  they  supposed  they  had  already  attained 
all  the  truth  that  they  required.  Yet,  in  spite  of  this, 
a  passionate  interest  in  the  ultimate  nature  of  reality 
flashes  continually  through  his  words  ;  it  is  the  pre- 
supposition of  his  change  of  faith  and  the  inspiration 
of  all  his  preaching  of  righteousness.  True,  he  never 
elaborated  a  systematic  philosophy  of  religion,  but  he 
produced  creative  thought  which  no  subsequent  philo- 
sophy has  been  able  to  neglect.  To  the  Corinthians, 
indeed,  corrupted  by  the  conceit  of  a  shallow  intellect- 
ualism,  he  will  preach  only  the  Cross  of  Christ.  He 
declines  to  gratify  them  with  logomachies.  But  he 
tells  them  that,  for  the  initiated,  he  has  a  philosophy. 
And  when  in  the  hymn  to  Charity  he  contrasts  love 


158  IMMORTALITY  iv 

with  knowledge  to  the  detriment  of  the  latter,  it  is  not 
because  he  thinks  poorly  of  knowledge  and  its  pursuit. 
Quite  the  contrary.  It  is  precisely  because  he  rates 
knowledge  of  the  truth  so  high  that  in  praise  of  love 
he  says  that  love  is  higher  even  than  knowledge.  And 
what  he  looks  for  in  the  world  to  come  is,  not  the 
abolition  of  the  interest  in  truth,  but  its  full  and 
complete  fruition.  The  notion  that  the  activity  of  the 
reason  in  the  pursuit  of  truth  is  something  on  which 
Religion  should  look  askance  runs  counter  not  only  to 
St.  Paul's  teaching  but  to  that  of  all  the  greatest 
Christian  thinkers.  St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  indeed,  goes 
so  far  as  to  say  that  the  Beatific  Vision  is  an  activity 
of  the  intellect,  actus  intellectus^  and  indeed  an  activity 
of  the  speculative  rather  than  of  the  practical  intellect, 
and  more  than  once  adopts  to  describe  it  St.  Augustine's 
phrase,  ^'- gaudium  de  veritate.^^  ^ 

Beauty 

The  apprehension  and  enjoyment  of  the  Beautiful 
is  that  element  in  the  ideal  state  of  existence  which 
traditional  apocalyptic  conceptions  of  Heaven  have 
been  fairly  successful  in  bringing  home  to  the  popular 
mind.  The  glorious  vision  of  the  descent  of  the  New 
Jerusalem  which  concludes  the  Book  of  Revelation, 
the  sublime  poetry  of  which  no  amount  of  over-literal 
and  materialistic  interpretation  could  disguise,  is  mainly 
responsible  for  this  relative  success.  But  though  the 
apprehension  of  sublimer  forms  of  beauty  must  be  a 
necessary  element  in  our  conception  of  the  future  life, 
the  sublime  alone  will  not  suffice.  The  highest  and 
most  complete  activity  of  the  aesthetic  instinct  demands 
for  its  satisfaction  not  merely  the  grandeur  of  an  Alpine 
vista,  of  an  Indian  sunset,  or  of  a  great  Cathedral,  but  the 

^  Cf.  Summa  Theologiae,  Prima  Secundae,  iii.  4.  I  have  no  desire  to  defend 
this  particular  conclusion  but  I  quote  it  as  showing  the  outlook  of  the  man.  What 
the  Church  needs  to-day  is  to  abandon  the  letter  in  order  thereby  to  recover  the 
spirit  of  the  great  Theologians  of  the  past. 


IV        LIFE  OF  THE  WORLD  TO  COME     159 

quiet,  homely  appeal  of  the  violet,  the  mossy  nook,  the 
village  church.  As  I  have  already  urged,  our  notions 
of  the  beauty  of  Heaven  and  the  splendour  of  it 
have  been  modelled  too  much  on  the  throne-room  of 
Solomon  in  all  his  glory,  and  too  little  on  the  lilies 
of  the  field  and  on  the  everyday  interests  of  Him 
whose  standard  of  values  we  profess  to  recognise  but 
have  none  of  us  yet  completely  apprehended.  Stateli- 
ness,  dignity,  classical  perfection  are  the  ideal  of  Pagan 
art — Greek  or  Renaissance.  The  "modern  taste,  which 
is  not  content  with  Praxiteles  or  Correggio  unless  it  can 
also  have  Rembrandt  or  Rodin,  is  moving  nearer  to  the 
aesthetic  sense  of  Christ. 


Humour 

In   the   Bible   there  is  not   much  humour,  but  the 

place  where  we  find  it  most  is  the  place  where,  if  the  line 

of  argument  I  am  pursuing  is  correct,  we  should  most 

expect  to  find  it — in  some  of  the  sayings  of  our  Lord.^ 

These  instances  of  humour  range  from  the  delicate  irony 

of  the  suggestion  that  the  Pharisees  were  such  as  "  needed 

no   physician "    to   the   touch   of  extravaganza   in   the 

picture  of  the  man  naively  volunteering  to  remove  a 

speck  from  a  friend's  eye  while  there  is  half  a  tree  in 

his  own.     Only  those  sayings  of  our  Lord  have  been 

preserved  which  happened  to  strike  the  original  hearers 

as  supremely  interesting  and  which,  in  addition,  appeared 

to  the  second  generation  of  Christians,  by  whom  our 

Gospels    were    composed,    to    have    a    distinct    moral, 

religious,  or  apologetic  value.       Hence   they   have   all 

been,  as  it  were,  passed  through  a  sieve,  which  inevitably 

sifted  out  many  things  which  seemed  uninteresting  or 

unimportant  to  more  conventionally-minded  followers. 

Thus  only  one  saying  of  His  implying  a  judgment  on 

aesthetics  ("  the  lilies  of  the  field  "),  one  only  indicating 

His  love  for  animals  ("  not  one  sparrow  "),  have  been 

1  Cf.  T.  R.  Glover,  Tin  Jesui  of  History,  pp.  49  ft". 


i6o  IMMORTALITY  iv 

preserved.  But  these  cannot  have  been  the  only  ones 
of  the  kind  that  were  spoken,  for  each  implies  a  whole 
philosophy  ;  and  these  two,  Ije  it  noted,  are  recorded, 
not  for  the  sake  of  showing  His  love  of  nature  or  of 
animals — the  features  in  these  sayings  which  are  of  most 
interest  to  us — but  for  the  sake  of  the  moral  which  can 
be  drawn  from  them.  There  are,  perhaps,  not  more 
than  half  a  dozen  sayings  recorded  which  are  clearly 
humorous.  These  are  sufficient  to  prove  that  humour 
was  natural  to  Him  ;  and  it  is  a  reasonable  conjecture 
that  it  was  a  more  conspicuous  feature  in  His  discourse 
than  at  first  sight  we  might  infer  from  the  relatively 
small  proportion  of  recorded  sayings  in  which  we  can 
still  detect  it. 

Personally,  I  should  not  be  satisfied  by  a  future  life 
from  which  the  element  of  kindly  humour  was  excluded. 
And  the  flict  that  it  entered  into  the  mental  life  of  our 
Lord  would  seem  to  justify  the  inference  that  there 
will  be  something  equivalent  to  it  in  the  next  world — 
otherwise,  a  real  loss  of  values  would  take  place. 
Humour  is  one  of  those  things  which  is  developed 
rather  late  in  the  progress  of  the  race.  Primitive 
humour  like  primitive  courage  usually  has  in  it  an 
element  of  cruelty  and  brutality,  often,  too,  of  grossness. 
But  with  the  intellectual,  and  still  more  with  the  moral, 
advance  of  the  community  the  humour  which  consists  in 
jeers  at  the  misfortunes  of  others  or  which  expresses 
itself  in  crude  practical  jokes  gives  place  to  a  subtler 
thing,  of  which  the  fundamental  quality  is  a  keen 
perception  of  absurdity  or  unreality  and  in  which  the 
predominant  element  is  kindliness.  In  a  society  of 
real  friends  humour  is  the  solvent  in  which  egoism,  the 
root  of  all  unsocial  thought  and  action,  is  insensibly 
dissolved.  Most  of  all  so  when  a  person  sees  or  even 
enunciates  the  joke  against  himself.  The  highest  form 
of  humour  implies  the  unerring  perception  of  reality 
which  sees  at  once  through  shams,  pretences,  and  self- 
deceptions.      It  implies  a  gift  of  expression  which  can 


IV        LIFE  OF  THE  WORLD  TO  COME     i6i 

absolutely  fit  word,  thought,  and  gesture  in  the  subtlest 
combination.  Again,  it  implies  a  keenness  of  moral 
perception  which  can  "  understand  all "  and  yet  refuse 
to  "  pardon  all  "  without  the  expression  of  a  subtle 
criticism  which  can  purify  without  wounding,  because  it 
speaks  not  as  from  a  moral  pedestal,  but  from  the 
standpoint  of  one  conscious  of  membership  in  a  race  to 
which  absurdity  and  self-deception  is  innate.  It  can 
express,  indeed  it  alone  can  express  in  little  things,  a 
moral  judgment  without  self-righteousness,  because  it 
implies  the  humility  which  necessarily  goes  with  the 
recognition  of  reality.  Humour,  of  course,  can  be 
cruel,  base,  or  filthy,  but  in  its  highest  form  it  implies 
a  synthesis  of  the  highest  intellectual,  aesthetic,  and 
moral  perceptions.  In  another  aspect  it  is  an  expression, 
the  most  spontaneous  perhaps  of  all,  of  the  joy  of  life. 
It  is  essentially  thanksgiving  though  not  consciously 
realised  as  such.  Again,  it  is  before  all  things  a  social 
virtue  since  it  is  only  within  a  circle  bound  together 
by  real  ties  of  fellowship  and  sympathy  that  it  can 
attain  its  subtlest,  richest,  and  most  spontaneous  expres- 
sion. But  if  there  are  to  be  jokes  in  Heaven,  they 
will  be  better  and  more  kindly  than  most  of  those  we 
hear  on  earth. 

The  Vision  of  God 

"  And  I  saw  no  temple  therein,  for  the  Lord  God 
Almighty  and  the  Lamb  are  the  temple  of  it.  And 
the  city  had  no  need  of  the  sun  neither  of  the  moon  to 
shine  in  it,  for  the  glory  of  God  did  lighten  it,  and  the 
Lamb  is  the  light  thereof." 

Saints  and  theologians  have  always  admitted,  more 
than  that,  they  have  always  cried  aloud,  that  it  was  the 
unimagined  and  unimaginable  to  which  they  pointed 
when  they  spoke  of  the  Beatific  Vision.  Yet,  in  spite 
of,  perhaps  even  partly  on  account  of,  their  emphasis 
on  its  unimaginable  wonder,  certain  ideas  and  associa- 

M 


1 62  IMMORTALITY  iv 

tions  have  gathered  round  the  phrase  which  have  led 
to  an  actual  impoverishment  of  our  notions  of  the 
life  of  Heaven,  and  have  also  exercised  a  misleading 
and  demoralising  influence  on  religious  life  and  practice 
on  earth.  For  this  reason,  and  for  this  reason  only,  I 
feel  that  I  cannot  altogether  avoid  the  subject. 

Clearly  here,  as  in  what  has  gone  before,  the  guiding 
principle  of  our  enquiry  must  be  that  "  the  knowledge 
of  God  and  of  His  Son  Jesus  Christ,"  which  con- 
stitutes the  essence  of  Eternal  Life,  is  something  of 
which  already  in  this  world  it  is  possible  to  have  some 
enjoyment.  St.  Paul,  St.  John,  and  the  Saints  in 
general  agree  in  regarding  the  conscious  experience  of 
the  presence  of  God  in  the  life  of  the  world  to  come 
rather  as  an  enhancement,  an  intensification,  an  exten- 
sion, and  a  consummation,  of  the  highest  experiences  of 
this  life  than  as  something  wholly  different  in  kind. 
But  just  because  it  is  the  highest  of  all  experiences 
that  are  here  in  question  we  must  be  especially  careful 
to  bring  our  judgment  of  what  it  is  that  we  mean  by 
"  highest  "  to  the  test  of  the  standard  of  values  which 
was  set  by  Christ.  The  conflict  is  always  with  us 
between  the  Christian  and  the  Pagan  conceptions  as  to 
what  is  the  essential  test  and  quality  of  "  religious 
experience  "  or  of  the  *'  spiritual "  ;  and  we  do  well  to 
study  carefully  what  St.  Paul  has  to  say  to  the 
Corinthians  on  the  matter  of  "  spiritual  gifts."  By  the 
Corinthians  "  speaking  with  tongues  " — an  ecstasy  of 
exalted  emotion  without  clear  content  or  articulate 
expression  —  was  regarded  as  the  type  of  the  highest 
spiritual  experience  and  activity,  St.  Paul  does  not 
condemn  the  emotion  or  even  the  incapacity  of  expres- 
sion ;  but  he  clearly  regards  this  incoherent  emotionalism 
as  a  very  great  danger  ;  and  ranks  it  as  far  inferior 
to  the  passionate  apprehension  and  clear  enunciation 
of  truth  and  righteousness  which  prophecy  can  give. 
And  he  proceeds  at  once  to  "show  them  a  more 
excellent  way  " — the  way  of  the  love  that  never  faileth 


IV        LIFE  OF  THE  WORLD  TO  COME     163 

and  is  the  only  true  and  the  final  canon  by  which  to 
judge  of  spiritual  values  in  heaven  as  on  earth. 

In  modern  religion  the  error  of  the  Corinthians 
most  commonly  takes  two  forms.  First,  there  is  what 
I  may  call  the  "  cult  of  the  supreme  moment,"  the 
pursuit,  for  its  own  sake,  of  a  religious  experience  of  a 
wholly  emotional  character.  Secondly,  there  is  the 
notion  that  holiness  or  sanctity  or  "  the  supernatural 
life "  is  a  thing  which  can  exist  apart  from  what  is 
known  as  "  ordinary  "  goodness,  good  sense  or  good 
taste.  The  teaching  and  the  methods  by  which  it  is 
sought  to  attain  this  spurious  religious  experience  or  to 
realise  this  falsely  conceived  sanctity  differ  considerably 
according  as  those  who  pursue  them  are  influenced  by 
"  the  corrupt  following  "  of  Catholic  Mysticism  or  of 
Evangelical  Revivalism.  The  danger  of  the  emotional 
short-cut  which  thinks  to  enjoy  an  experience  of 
God  without  clear  apprehension  of  and  complete 
devotion  to  the  Goodness,  Beauty,  and  Truth  which  are 
the  expression  of,  and  the  revelation  in  ordinary  life  of, 
the  very  nature  of  the  Divine,  is  one  of  which  the 
great  Mystics  and  Revivalists  themselves  have  often 
been  fully  aware.  It  is  the  tragedy  of  all  greatness 
that  it  can  be  used  to  give  an  added  prestige  to  weak- 
nesses or  errors,  which  may  perhaps  have  existed  in  the 
great  man,  but  in  him  were  either  merely  the  reflection 
of  a  general  tendency  of  his  time  or  were  at  any  rate 
the  least  characteristic  element  of  his  own  real  message. 

If  we  start  with  a  false  conception  of  what  is  meant 
by  the  worship  of  God  on  earth  we  shall  reach  a  false 
conception  of  the  life  of  Heaven.  I  have  tried  else- 
where^ to  work  out  what  I  believe  to  be  the  true 
conception  of  worship.  In  this  place  I  can  only  state 
my  conviction  that  a  life  consisting  in  one  unending  act 
of  adoration — provided  always  that  adoration  be  thought 
of  as  something  isolated  from,  and  unrelated  to  the  life 
of  social  fellowship,  creative  work,  aesthetic  apprehension. 

'  Concerning  Prayer,  Essay  VIII. 


i64  IMMORTALITY  iv 

and  active  thought — is  not  the  highest  life.  True 
worship  is  an  orientation  of  the  whole  self  which  colours, 
conditions,  and  pervades  these  departmental  activities. 
It  is  not  a  uniform  preoccupation  with  the  realisation 
of  an  emotional  mystic  experience  which  can  supersede 
them  ;  although  in  this  world  certainly,  and  possibly  in  the 
next,  definite  times  may  be  set  apart  for  concentration  on 
the  realisation  of  the  Divine  Presence  apart  from  action, 
thought,  aesthetic  apprehension,  or  human  fellowship. 

That  which  is  revealed  to  us  by  truth  and  beauty 
and  goodness  is  not  something  other  than  the  Divine,  it  is 
very  God  ;  but  to  say  this  and  this  only  is  to  leave  unsaid 
something  quite  as  important.  God  is  a  person,  and 
the  Vision  of  God  must  mean  a  fuller  realisation  of  this 
in  all  its  richness  and  meaning  than  is  possible  on  earth. 
The  experience  which  goes  with  the  perception  of  natural 
beauty  sometimes  seems  to  carry  with  it  the  conscious- 
ness of  an  Infinite  Presence  almost  personal  ;  in  the 
next  life  the  qualifying  "  almost  "  may  disappear.  But 
this  analogy  will  not  take  us  all  the  way  we  want  to  go, 
and  it  is  hard  not  to  surmise  that  to  finite  minds  the 
Infinite  Being  must  always  baffle  and  transcend  our  appre- 
hension. It  is  just  here  that  the  Christian  doctrine 
of  the  Incarnation  helps  us.  "  No  man  hath  seen  God 
at  any  time  ;  the  only  begotten  Son  ...  he  hath 
declared  him."  If  this  is  true  on  earth  surely  it  will 
not  become  untrue  in  Heaven.  If  we  are  right  in 
thinking  that  the  "  spiritual  body "  of  the  world  to 
come  will  be  such  as  to  completely  express  the  real 
nature  of  our  personalities,  and  if  even  in  the  body  of 
His  flesh  and  blood  Christ  could  be  for  men  the  "  image 
of  the  unseen  God,"  how  much  more  will  He  in  His 
spiritual  body  be  able  to  reveal  to  us  the  very  nature 
of  the  Divine  personality,  "  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead 
bodily  "  ?  In  this  way  we  can  imagine  how  what  now 
we  see  through  a  glass  darkly  we  shall  then  indeed  see 
face  to  face. 

And  what,  may  we  expect,  will  be  the  effect  upon 


IV        LIFE  OF  THE  WORLD  TO  COME     165 

us  of  this  visible  personal  contact  with  our  Lord  ?  Not, 
as  is  so  often  taken  for  granted,  to  dazzle,  paralyse,  or 
crush.  A  personality  that  is  truly  great,  great  that  is 
in  the  sense  in  which  Christ  reckons  greatness,  is  not 
one  which  breaks  the  bruised  reed  or  quenches  the 
smouldering  wick  in  weaker  characters.  That  is  the 
function  of  the  vulgar  Super- man.  A  really  great 
personality  uplifts  and  inspires,  it  does  not  abash  ;  it 
stimulates  the  individuality  of  others,  it  does  not  strive 
to  reduce  them  to  a  pattern  ;  it  encourages  them  to 
diverse  and  spontaneous  activity,  it  does  not  drill  them 
into  a  uniform  monotony. 

The  world  is  so  full  of  a  number  of  things, 
I  am  sure  we  should  all  be  as  happy  as  kings. 

Heaven  will  be  more  "full  of  things"  than  earth,  and 
Christ  is  not  the  supreme  Egoist  who  must  always  have 
all  eyes  directly  gazing  on  Himself  alone,  but  the  supreme 
Friend  who  will  share  with  us  all  our  interests  and  our 
joys  in  their  infinite  variety. 
"  It  is  I  ;  be  not  afraid." 

In  the  picture  by  Apelles  of  Agamemnon  offering 
up  his  only  daughter  in  sacrifice  to  liberate  the  Greek 
fleet  from  the  curse  of  an  offended  deity,  we  are  told 
that  on  the  faces  of  kings,  chieftains,  soldiers,  and 
attendants  was  depicted  with  a  master's  skill  every 
shade  of  sympathy,  pity,  horror,  and  awe  ;  but  the 
figure  of  the  father  was  so  turned  that  the  expression 
of  his  face  could  not  be  seen.  What  word  or  brush 
cannot  express  imagination  can  sometimes  compass. 
But  there  are  things  in  regard  to  which  even  imagination 
must  faint  and  fail.  Our  attempt  to  penetrate  the 
nature  of  the  life  that  is  to  be  has  reached  this  point. 

The  principle  of  the  continuity  between  the  life  of 
Heaven  and  the  highest  life  we  know  on  earth — that 
necessai'y  deduction  from  belief  in  the  Divinity  of  Christ 
— will  carry  us  a  long  way  towards  finding  that  definite 


i66  IMMORTALITY  iv 

and  concrete  picture  of  the  nature  of  the  future  life 
which  was  the  goal  set  before  us  in  this  enquiry.  It 
also  indicates  the  direction  in  which  further  revelation 
may  be  sought.  If  Christ  is  for  us  the  "  portrait  of  the 
unseen  God,"  our  knowledge  of  God,  and  therefore  of 
the  nature  of  eternal  life,  will  depend  upon  the  extent 
to  which  we  can  enter  into  and  understand  the  mind  of 
Christ.  But  this  is  something  which  is  always  growing 
with  the  moral  and  spiritual  growth,  not  only  of  the 
individual,  but  also  of  the  community.  In  exact  pro- 
portion to  the  effective  realisation  on  earth  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God  will  be  the  increase  in  our  knowledge 
of  the  real  nature  of  the  life  of  the  world  to  come. 

But  something  unrealised  and  unguessed  at  by  man  on 
earth  must  still  remain.  Say  that  in  the  life  of  Christ 
is  revealed  the  life  of  very  God,  and  you  say  it  of  the 
life  of  One  who  "  increased  in  wisdom  and  stature," 
who  was  made  "  perfect  through  sufferings,"  but  who 
only  reached  the  climax  of  maturity  in  His  experience 
of  the  triumph  over  death  and  His  entry  into  a  life 
which  is  beyond  our  present  ken.  The  best  we  know 
on  earth  is  no  mere  shadow,  it  is  of  the  very  substance 
of  that  which  is  to  come,  but  it  is  still  only  an  earnest 
and  a  foretaste.  There  must  remain  heights  and  possi- 
bilities yet  unexplored.  "  Eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear 
heard,  neither  have  entered  into  the  heart  of  man,  the 
things  which  God  hath  prepared  for  them  that  love 
him."  The  fruit  of  the  Vine  which  we  drink  on  earth 
is  really  and  essentially  Eternal  Life,  but  we  shall  drink 
it  new  in  the  Kingdom  of  God. 


V 
THE    BIBLE    AND    HELL 


BY 

CYRIL  WILLIAM  EMMET,  B.D. 

VICAR    OF    WEST    HENDRED,    BERKS. 

AUTHOK  OF  "the  ESCH  ATOI.OGlCAr.  Q_UESTION  IN  THE  GOSPELS  "  J  "  1  H  K  EhlSILt 
TO  THE  GALATIANS  "  (uEADERs'  COMMENTARY)  ;  "  THE  THIRD  BOOK  OF  MACCABEES  " 
(apocrypha  and  PSEUDEPIGHAPHA  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT,  EDITED  BY  CHARLEs)  ; 
"the       fourth        BOOK       OF       MACCABEES  "       (s.P.C.K.       TRANSLATIONS       OF       EARLY 

documents),   etc. 


167 


SYNOPSIS 

PACE 

Introduction  .  .  .  .  .  .170 

The  modern  tendency  to  reject  the  idea  of  hell.  Is  this  com- 
patible with  the  teaching  of  the  Bible,  and  in  particular  of 
the  New  Testament  ?  Recent  discovery  and  research  into 
origin  and  meaning  of  language  used  about  future  punish- 
ment shows  that  doctrine  of  hell  in  the  strict  sense  is  not  to 
be  found  in  the  Bible. 

The  Teaching  of  the  Old  Testament  .  .  .       173 

Sheol  ;  sinners  punished  on  earth.  Late  passages  which  suggest 
punishment  after  death  (Isaiah,  Daniel). 

The  Teaching  of  the  Apocrypha  and  Apocalyptic  Litera- 
ture ........   176 

The  Apocrypha  as  a  whole  agrees  with  the  Old  Testament. 
The  change  in  Apocalyptic  literature  ;  its  importance.  Perse- 
cutors, oppressors,  and  apostates  punished  after  death.  Uncer- 
tainty as  to  fate  of  Gentiles.  Duration  of  punishment  not 
thought  out  ;  loose  use  of  "  for  ever,"  etc.  Doctrine  of  anni- 
hilation. Repentance  after  death  and  the  ethical  problem 
(4  Esdras). 

Zoroastrian  Influence  on  Jewish  Eschatology     ■  .  .       183 

No  strict  doctrine  of  everlasting  punishment  in  contemporary 
religions.  Zoroastrian  influence  ;  its  ambiguity  on  this  ques- 
tion. 

The  Teaching  of  the  New  Testament  .  .  .       185 

Comparative  silence  ;  books  in  which  future  punishment  is  almost 
ignored  (St.  Paul,  St.  John).  The  Synoptic  Gospels  5  pro- 
minence of  the  doctrine  in  the  first  Gospel  as  opposed  to  the 
second  and  third  ;  evidence.  Which  is  the  more  original  ? 
The  group  of  Apocalyptic  books  on  which  the  belief  rests. 
Do  these  books  teach  an  everlasting  hell  }  Fire  ;  "aeonian." 
Three  crucial  passages. 

Summary  of  New  Testament  Teaching  .  .  .       198 

I.  The  two  classes.  2.  General  reticence.  3.  Influence  of  con- 
temporary Apocalyptic  ideas.  4.  The  desire  for  retribution. 
5.  Everlasting  punishment  nowhere  certainly  taught.  6.  No 
evidence  that  it  was  taught  by  Christ.  7.  Traces  of  Uni- 
versalism. 

168 


V  THE  BIBLE  AND  HELL  169 

PAGE 

The  Hardening  of  the  Doctrine  in    later  Thought  and 

THE  Revolt  against  it        .  .  .  .       202 

Everlasting  punishment  not  embodied  in  any  official  Church 
formula.  Reasons  why  it  became  the  accepted  view.  Protests 
against  it  ;  Origen.  The  Middle  Ages.  Opposition  within 
the  Church  of  England  ;  an  open  question  for  her  members. 

The    Spirit    and    the    Letter    of    the    New    Testament 

Teaching         .......       209 

The  two  classes  of  the  New  Testament.  Attempts  to  mitigate 
the  doctrine  of  hell  :  (i)  death-bed  repentance  ;  (2)  poena 
damni.  The  need  of  advancing  beyond  the  explicit  teaching 
of  the  New  Testament.  The  desire  to  do  so  ethical,  and  due 
to  the  teaching  of  Christ  Himself  and  the  belief  in  the  Father- 
hood of  God.  Is  a  belief  in  hell  a  deterrent  against  sin  .''  The 
hope  of  future  progress  and  amendment  not  a  minimising  of 
sin.  The  possibility  of  ultimate  dissolution  in  extreme  cases. 
The  fundamental  religious  principles  and  the  love  of  God 
revealed  in  Christ. 


THE  BIBLE  AND  HELL 

Introduction 

In  any  average  gathering  of  persons  discussing  the 
future  life  from  at  all  a  modern  point  of  view — always 
supposing  they  were  prepared  to  say  frankly  what  they 
thought,  and  not  merely  what  they  thought  they  ought 
to  think — it  would  be  fairly  safe  to  assume  that  the  idea 
of  hell  would  be  rejected  almost  without  debate.  By 
"  hell "  in  this  connection  I  would  be  understood  to 
mean  any  state  of  punishment,  whether  bodily  or  spiritual, 
from  which  there  is  no  longer  any  prospect  of  the  soul 
deriving  any  benefit,  and  in  which  it  suffers  without 
hope  for  itself  or  profit  to  others. 

Our  strongest  ground  for  the  belief  in  immortality  at 
all  is  our  trust  in  the  infinite  Love  of  God  and  our  con- 
viction that  in  His  Universe  goodness  must  ultimately 
prevail  ;  but  the  doctrine  that  through  all  eternity 
there  will  continue  to  exist  individuals  suffering  acutely 
in  useless  and  hopeless  agony  is  too  cruel  and  too  ir- 
rational to  be  compatible  with  that  belief.  Indeed,  there 
is  no  doubt  that  the  notion  that  the  doctrine  of  hell  is 
an  essential  part  of  Christianity  has  been  one  of  the 
main  reasons  of  the  widespread  revolt  against  accepted 
religious  ideas  on  the  part  of  so  large  a  proportion  of 
the  more  thoughtful  and  seriously  minded  which  has 
taken  place  during  the  last  century. 

The  probable  tendency  of  discussion  in  such  a  group 

170 


V  THE  BIBLE  AND  HELL  171 

as  I  am  supposing  would  be  to  some  form  of  Uni- 
versalism,  i.e.  to  the  belief  that  so  long  as  there  was  any 
spark  of  goodness  in  the  soul  it  might  still  be  purified 
and  developed  by  the  Divine  discipline  through  the  ages. 
There  might  be  differences  of  opinion  as  to  the  exist- 
ence of  any  who  could  be  regarded  as  irremediably  bad, 
but  it  would  be  agreed  that  if  there  were  such,  some 
form  of  annihilation  was  the  only  end  which  could  be 
conceived  for  them. 

The  difficulty,  however,  at  once  arises  that  though, 
no  doubt,  this  is  the  general  attitude  of  educated  Chris- 
tians to-day — and  we  shall  consider  later  the  ethical 
grounds  on  which  it  rests — it  is  not  what  the  Church 
has  in  practice  taught.  And  the  traditional  Christian 
teaching  in  this  matter  is  very  generally  supposed  to 
rest  directly  on  the  teaching  of  the  Bible  as  a  whole  and 
of  the  New  Testament  in  particular. 

It  is  the  contention  of  this  paper  that  this  supposi- 
tion is  wholly  erroneous.  The  recovery,  during  recent 
years,  of  a  large  number  of  lost  Jewish  Apocalyptic 
writings  has  thrown  an  entirely  new  light  on  the  exact 
nature  of  the  problem  contemplated,  on  the  exact 
meaning  of  the  terms  employed,  and  on  the  history 
and  origin  of  many  of  the  ideas  on  this  subject  found 
in  the  Biblical  writers.  The  net  result  of  modern 
Biblical  scholarship,  with  its  application  of  the  historical 
method  commonly  known  as  the  higher  criticism,  com- 
bined with  the  light  derived  from  these  new  sources, 
is  to  make  it  quite  clear  that  the  doctrine  of  hell  in  the 
sense  in  which  that  term  was  understood  by  our  great- 
grandfathers is  not  to  be  found  in  the  Bible  at  all.  The 
Bible  teaches,  indeed,  that  the  choice  between  right  and 
wrong  action  is  one  which  has  eternal  and  abiding 
consequences.  It  is  emphatically  opposed  to  any  belief 
that,  do  what  we  will,  it  will  make  no  difference  in  the 
long  run.  What  it  does  not  teach  is  that,  in  the 
last  and  final  result  of  things,  there  will  still  remain  in 
the    Universe    beings    suffering    acute    and   everlasting 


172  IMMORTALITY  v 

torment  in  permanent  rebellion  against  the  Divine  Will 
and  for  ever  rejecting  the  Divine  Love. 

Before,  however,  submitting  the  detailed  evidence 
for  this  conclusion,  it  will  be  convenient  to  summarise 
briefly  the  main  considerations  upon  which  it  rests. 

(i)  In  the  Old  Testament,  except  for  a  single 
passage  in  one  of  the  latest  books,  there  is  no  clear 
teaching  of  any  punishment  at  all  for  the  wicked  after 
death.  They  may  be  punished  in  this  world,  their 
bodies  may  lie  unburied,  their  children  may  sufl^er  for 
their  sins,  but  they  themselves  will  simply  perish  from 
the  earth. 

(2)  The  idea  of  a  punishment  after  death  for  the 
wicked  comes  in  with  the  so-called  Apocalyptic  litera- 
ture, and  the  conception  of  the  nature  of  that  punish- 
ment was  probably  largely  due  to  the  influence  of 
Zoroastrian  teaching.  Two  points,  however,  of  great 
importance  emerge  from  the  study  of  this  literature  :  (a) 
The  authors  are  mainly,  if  not  entirely,  preoccupied  with 
the  problem  of  the  punishment  deserved  either  by 
persecutors  of  the  righteous  Israel  or  by  apostates  from 
the  Faith.  They  are  hardly,  if  at  all,  interested  in  the 
future  destiny  of  mankind  at  large,  or  even  of  ordinary 
sinners  in  Israel.  (/>)  The  punishment  contemplated, 
though  often  conceived  of  in  crude  and  material  terms,  is 
thought  of  as  enduring  for  an  epoch  of  limited  duration, 
not  for  ever.  A  careful  study  of  the  passages  in  which 
they  occur  show  that  the  words  translated  "  eternal " 
or  "  everlasting  "  do  not  as  a  matter  of  fact  mean  what 
those  words  would  imply  in  the  English  language. 
There  is  indeed  a  notable  passage  in  which  life  during 
a  period  expressly  defined  as  consisting  of  500  years 
is  spoken  of  as  "  eternal." 

(3)  The  writers  of  the  New  Testament  lived  in 
an  atmosphere  which  was  saturated  in  the  conceptions 
and  the  imagery  of  the  Apocalyptic  writings.  Their 
relation  to  the  whole  cycle  of  Apocalyptic  ideas  is  partly 
one  of  acceptance,  partly  one  of  emancipation,  but  the 


V  THE  BIBLE  AND  HELL  173 

degree  of  acceptance  or  emancipation  varies  very  much 
in  the  different  books  of  the  New  Testament.  In 
particular  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  teaching 
of  Our  Lord,  especially  as  represented  in  the  first 
Gospel,  has  been  to  some  extent  modified  by  tradition 
so  as  to  make  it  conform  rather  more  closely  to  the 
conventional  Apocalyptic  views  of  the  time.  The 
general  teaching  of  the  New  Testament  appears  to  be 
that,  on  the  one  hand,  the  choice  between  good  and  evil 
in  this  world  is  one  which  involves  abiding  consequences 
extending  far  beyond  the  limits  of  this  life,  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  there  is  no  clear  evidence  that  any  of  the 
writers  contemplated  for  the  sinner  an  unending  exist- 
ence in  a  state  of  torment  and  rebellion  against  God. 

In  the  light  of  these  results  it  will  then  be  possible  to 
consider  certain  aspects  of  the  problems  of  the  destiny 
of  the  wicked  in  the  next  life,  which  do  not  seem  to 
be  explicitly  contemplated  by  the  Biblical  writers,  and 
to  ask  what  light  is  thrown  upon  them,  in  the  form 
in  which  they  are  presented  to  the  mind  of  the  present 
day,  by  the  underlying  moral  and  religious  principles 
of  the  New  Testament. 


The  Teaching  of  the  Old  Testament 

It  is  now  generally  recognised  that  there  are  in  the 
Old  Testament  but  faint  traces  of  any  real  belief  in 
immortality.  In  the  shadowy  Sheol^  ^  the  land  of  for- 
getfulness  and  darkness,  where  men  are  gathered  to 
their  fathers,  there  are  no  moral  distinctions  between 
good  and  bad.  When  the  problem  of  the  sufferings 
of  the  righteous  arises  in  an  acute  form,  as  in  Job, 
Ecclesiastes,  and  some  of  the  Psalms,  it  is  of  primary 
significance  that  no  new  or  future  world  is  called 
in  to  redress  the  balance  of  the  old.  The  solution 
of  the  problem  is  not  found  in  any  system  of  rewards 

'  Though  this  is  generally  represeated  by  "  hell  "  in  the  A.V.,  we  must  beware 
of  transferring  to  it  the  later  connotation  of  the  English  word. 


174  IMMORTALITY  v 

and  punishments  after  death.  In  the  few  hints  which 
are  given  of  a  life  beyond  the  grave  (e.g.  Ps.  xlix., 
Ixxiii.,  and  perhaps  Job  xix.  25)  the  point  is  the 
essential  hnk  of  communion  between  the  believer  and 
his  God,  a  link  which  even  death  cannot  sever.  That 
is  to  say,  it  is  only  the  future  of  the  righteous  which  is 
here  under  consideration.  With  regard  to  the  wicked 
the  solution  is  that  they  will  ultimately  perish  from 
this  earth,  or  that  their  children  will  suffer,  not  that 
they  will  be  punished  after  death.  In  this  Essay  we  are 
only  concerned  with  what  happens  after  death,  and 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  the  Old  Testament  the 
fate  of  the  enemies  of  Jahweh  is  simply  destruction, 
complete  and  final.  This  comes  out  very  clearly  in  the 
descriptions  of  the  "  Day  of  the  Lord  "  in  connection 
with  which  we  find,  mainly  in  comparatively  late 
passages,  the  idea  of  a  Day  of  Judgment  on  the  nations 
(first  in  Zeph.  iii.  8  ;  cf.  Joel  iii.  2  etc.).  On  this  day 
Jahweh  takes  vengeance  on  His  foes,  but  it  is  on  His 
foes  living  on  earth  at  the  moment ;  there  is  no  sugges- 
tion that  His  vengeance  falls  on  those  already  dead, 
or  that  it  pursues  its  objects  in  any  other  way  than  by 
their  complete  destruction. 

We  may  consider  one  or  two  late  passages  which 
might  be  regarded  as  exceptions.  In  the  famous  "  Taunt 
Song"  on  the  king  of  Babylon  (Is.  xiv.)  the  point  is 
the  contrast  between  his  earthly  pride  and  ambition 
and  his  humiliation  as  he  descends  to  join  the  shades — 
the  Rephaim — in  the  uttermost  part  of  the  pit.  He 
has  hoped  to  be  as  God,  and  he  shares  the  common  lot 
of  men.  Anything  exceptional  in  his  fate  is  apparently 
connected  with  the  fact  that  his  body  remains  unburied  : 
"  All  the  kings  of  the  nations,  all  of  them,  sleep  in 
glory  every  one  in  his  own  house.  But  thou  art  cast 
forth  from  thy  sepulchre  like  an  abominable  branch. 
.  .  .  Thou  shalt  not  be  joined  with  them  in  burial  " 
{yv.  18  ff.).  In  order  that  Jahweh  may  punish  such  a 
prominent  sinner  He  must  bring  it  about  that  his  body 


V  THE  BIBLE  AND  HELL  175 

remains  unburied.^  The  inference  is  obvious  that  nor- 
mally there  were  no  rewards  and  punishments  in  Sheol. 

Is.  xxvi.  19  fF.  does  speak  of  the  resurrection  of 
righteous  Israelites,  but  nothing  is  said  of  the  wicked  ; 
vv.  20  ff.,  which  might  conceivably  suggest  this,  belong 
apparently  to  another  section. 

Of  greater  importance  for  our  purpose  is  the  well- 
known  passage  which  closes  the  Book  of  Isaiah  (Ixvi. 
24):  "They  shall  go  forth  and  look  upon  the  carcases 
of  the  men  that  have  transgressed  against  me  :  f()r  their 
worm  shall  not  die,  neither  shall  their  fire  be  quenched, 
and  they  shall  be  an  abhorring  unto  all  flesh."  The 
meaning  seems  to  be  that  in  the  new  age  the  righteous 
in  Jerusalem  will  see  the  corpses  of  sinners,  probably 
in  the  Valley  of  Hinnom,  decaying  and  burning.-  It  is 
not  said  that  their  spirits  live  and  feel  the  torture, 
though  this  may  be  intended.  At  any  rate  the  passage 
is  comparatively  late,  and  it  is  beyond  question  important 
historically  as  affording  a  basis  for  the  later  doctrine 
of  Gehenna. 

The  one  clear  exception  which  speaks  of  the  punish- 
ment of  sinners  after  death  is  Dan.  xii.  2  :  "  Many 
of  them  that  sleep  in  the  dust  of  the  earth  shall  awake, 
some  to  everlasting  life,  and  some  to  shame  and  ever- 
lasting contempt."  The  passage  comes  in  the  most 
Apocalyptic  of  all  the  Old  Testament  books  (the  date 
is  167  B.C.),  and  stands  alone  in  suggesting  a  resurrec- 
tion of  sinners  to  judgment.  We  may  note  that  the 
resurrection  is  apparently  confined  to  the  very  good  and 
the  very  bad,  and,  as  seems  probable  from  the  context, 
to  Israel.  The  pinners  the  writer  has  in  mind  are 
Jewish  apostates,  a  feature  which  will  meet  us  again 
later ;  they  awake  to  shame  and  everlasting  "  ab- 
horrence "  (the  word  is  the  same  as  in  Is.  Ixvi.  24)  ; 
we  do  not  yet  get  any  mention  of  fire  or  torture. 

'  It  is  worth  noting  that  great  stress  was  laid  on  the  importance  of  burial  in 
Babylonian  religion,  as  in  Greece  and  Rome.  See  Jastrow.  Religious  Belief  in  Baby- 
lonia and  Assyria,  p.  359. 

'•*  Is.  1.  1 1  is  sometimes  thought  to  embody  the  same  idea. 


176  IMMORTALITY  v 

The  Teaching  of  the  Apocrypha   and 
Apocalyptic  Literature 

In  the  purely  ethical  and  historical  books  of  the 
Apocrypha  no  very  marked  change  is  to  be  noted. 
In  Ecclesiasticus  retribution  is  still  confined  to  this 
life  ;  sinners  are  punished  only  here,  or  in  the  blotting 
out  of  their  remembrance  after  death  and  in  the 
misfortunes  of  their  descendants.^  Even  in  Wisdom 
with  its  strong  insistence  on  the  blessed  immortality 
of  the  righteous  we  hear  but  little  of  the  fate  of  the 
wicked.  They  are  conscious  of  the  joys  of  the  servants 
of  God  and  of  their  own  folly  (v.  2  ff.),  but  apparently 
they  themselves  are  destroyed  rather  than  punished. 
The  stress  is  on  their  lack  of  burial  (iv.  i8),  the  vanity 
of  their  life,  and  the  perishing  of  their  memory.  On 
the  other  hand,  in  2  Mac.  we  do  find  a  definite  belief 
in  punishment  after  death  (vi.  26,  vii.  34  ff.)  ;  let  us 
note  that  both  these  passages  have  to  do  with  the 
encouragement  of  the  martyr  and  the  denouncing  of 
the  persecutor.  In  4  Mac,  where  the  main  theme  is  the 
martyrdom  of  Eleazar  and  the  seven  brethren,  the  future 
doom  of  the  tyrant  is  a  constantly  recurring  feature. 
Each  of  the  seven  threatens  Antiochus  with  the  divine 
vengeance  after  death,  and  the  same  idea  is  repeated 
more  than  once  with  emphasis  in  the  body  of  the  book. 

It   is  when  we  pass  to  the  Apocalyptic  literature^ 

^  In  vii.  17,  where  the  Hebrew  has  "worms,"  the  Inter  Greek  has  "  fire  anH 
worms,"  thus  adding  the  idea  of  suffering  to  that  of  decay. 

2  This  literature  dates  from  the  last  two  centuries  B.C.  and  the  first 
century  a.d.  ;  it  includes  2  Esdras,  found  in  our  Apocrypha,  the  Books  of  Enoch, 
Baruch,  the  Testaments  of  the  XII.  Patriarchs,  Jubilees,  and  shorter  works.  The 
"revelations"  are  always  ascribed  to  some  well-known  figure  of  the  distant  past. 
Though  there  are  in  some  books  a  few  additions,  or  glosses,  obviously  due  to 
Christian  influence,  these  do  not  affect  their  general  independence  ;  as  a  whole 
they  are  either  earlier  than,  or  contemporary  with,  the  New  Testament.  Much 
of  this  literature  has  either  been  discovered,  or  at  least  translated  and  edited, 
within  recent  years,  and  our  knowledge  and  understanding  of  it  is  chiefly  due 
to  an  English  scholar,  Dr.  Charles.  It  may  be  studied  in  detail  in  his  edition 
of  the  Apocrypha  and  Pseudepigrapha  of  the  Old  Testament,  published  by  the  Oxford 
University  Press,  while  a  most  readable  and  clear  popular  account  is  given  in 
his  volume  in  the  Home  University  Library,  Between  the  Old  and  Neiv  Testaments. 
A  series  of  cheap  translations  is  now  being  issued  by  the  S.P.C.K. 


V  THE  BIBLE  AND  HELL  177 

proper  that  the  real  change  of  outlook  comes.  Since 
this  is  still  comparatively  unfamiliar  except  to  students 
of  theology,  and  is  quite  essential  to  the  due  under- 
standing of  the  New  Testament,  it  will  be  necessary 
to  discuss  it  in  some  detail.  The  books  consist  of 
elaborate  and  detailed  visions  and  prophecies,  usually 
expressed  in  bizarre  and  fantastic  imagery,  of  the 
"  last  things  " — in  technical  language  their  eschatology. 
They  are  known  as  '*  Apocalypses,"  as  claiming  to 
contain  "  revelations  "  of  the  future. 

In  the  eschatological  pictures  drawn  of  the  future 
the  punishment  of  sinners  stands  out  very  prominently, 
particularly  in  the  Book  of  Enoch.  But  in  regard 
to  this,  the  essential  thing  to  notice  is  that  the  classes 
punished  are  mainly  the  enemies  of  God  and  of  Israel, 
the  two  being  identified  with  no  scruples  of  conscience 
as  to  the  adequacy  of  the  purely  tribal  conception  of 
God  implied.  A  terrible  doom  awaits  the  rebellious 
angels  and  demons,  the  powers  of  the  earth  who  have 
been  hostile  to  the  chosen  people  ("  the  kings  and  the 
mighty  "  of  Enoch),  and  oppressors  and  apostates  from 
among  the  Jews  themselves  —  the  dissenters  of  the 
day.  Most  stress  is  laid  on  the  divine  vengeance  in 
contexts  which  deal  with  persecution  (as  we  have  seen 
in  4  Mac),  or  when  party  spirit  and  fanaticism  run 
high.  This  is  the  case  in  those  sections  of  Enoch 
which  express  the  bitterness  of  the  Pharisees  against 
the  later  Maccabean  princes  and  the  Sadducees.  Or 
a  good  example  may  be  found  in  Jub.  xxxvi.  19  ff. 
"  On  the  day  of  turbulence  and  execration  and 
indignation  and  anger,  with  flaming  devouring  fire 
as  He  burnt  Sodom,  so  likewise  shall  He  burn  his  land 
and  his  city  and  all  that  is  his,  and  he  shall  be  blotted 
out  of  the  book  of  the  discipline  of  the  children  of 
men  and  not  be  recorded  in  the  book  of  life,  but  in 
that  which  is  appointed  to  destruction,  and  he  shall 
depart  into  eternal  execration  ;  so  that  their  condemna- 
tion may  be  always  renewed  in  hate  and  in  execration, 


1 78  IMMORTALITY  v 

and  in  wrath,  and  in  torment,  and  in  indignation,  and 
in  plagues,  and  in  disease  for  ever."  The  words 
are  put  into  the  mouth  of  Isaac  with  reference  to 
Esau,  but  the  real  reference  is  obviously  to  con- 
temporary Edom.  Those  who  have  described  hell, 
whether  in  word  or  in  picture,  have  usually  found 
room  in  it  for  those  they  disliked,  and  it  is  worth 
noting  how  strongly  this  feature  stands  out  in  its 
earliest  descriptions.  We  may  ascribe  to  the  same 
spirit  the  insistence  on  the  delight  of  the  righteous 
in  the  tortures  of  their  enemies  which  meets  us  not 
infrequently  in  this  literature  (Enoch  xxvii.  3,  Ixii.  12, 
etc.  ;  Ass.  Mos.  x.  10).  It  is  a  somewhat  rare  touch  to 
find  punishment  after  death  considered  in  relation  to 
matters  of  purely  personal  ethics  as  in  3  Baruch  iv.  16, 
where  it  is  drunkards  who  are  warned  that  they  are 
"surrendering  themselves  to  the  eternal  fire." 

Again  we  hear  comparatively  little  of  the  fate 
of  the  mass  of  mankind  or  of  those  Gentiles  who 
have  not  come  into  direct  collision  with  the  chosen 
people.  In  Enoch  xci.  9,  2  Baruch  xliv.  15,  they  are 
all  destroyed,  but  there  is  no  gloating  over  their  doom, 
as  is  the  case  when  the  enemies  of  Israel  are  thought 
of.  Sometimes  (The  Testaments  of  the  XII.  Patriarchs 
generally,  Enoch  1.,  xc.  30,  4  Esdras  vi.  26)  the 
Gentiles  are  converted,  but  of  course  the  reference  is 
only  to  those  who  are  alive  at  the  coming  of  the 
Kingdom,  not  to  the  dead,  of  whom  we  hear  nothing. 

A  specially  instructive  passage  is  2  Baruch  Ixxii. 
(from  an  earlier  source  than  ch.  xliv.  just  quoted). 
Here  the  Messiah  summons  the  nations  ;  "  Some  of 
them  He  shall  spare  and  some  of  them  He  shall  slay  .  .  . 
Every  nation,  which  knows  not  Israel,  and  has  not 
trodden  down  the  seed  of  Jacob,  shall  indeed  be  spared. 
And  this  because  some  out  of  every  nation  shall  be 
subjected  to  thy  people.  But  all  those  who  have  ruled 
over  you,  or  have  known  you,  shall  be  given  to  the 
sword."     We  see  here  very   clearly  how  the  view  of 


V  THE  BIBLE  AND  HELL  179 

the  future  is  dominated  by  the  nationalist  outlook,  and 
by  the  desire  for  vengeance  on  all  who  have  ill-treated 
Israel. 

As  to  the  nature  of  the  punishment  of  sinners  the 
figures  used  are  those  familiar  to  us  from  the  New 
Testament  and  later  Christian  writers,  but  there 
is  far  more  stress  on  the  details  than  in  the  New 
Testament  itself  Fire  and  worms,  ice  and  cold,  chains 
and  darkness,  are  the  constant  instruments  of  torture. 
For  the  purpose,  however,  of  this  paper  the  view  enter- 
tained as  to  the  duration  and  results  of  the  punishment 
deserves  a  more  special  study.  In  this  connection 
"  eternal,"  "  for  ever,"  and  such  like  phrases  are  used 
freely,  but  it  is  clear  that  they  are  used  very  loosely 
and  that  the  question  of  actual  "  everlastingness "  is 
not  thought  out.  Sometimes  '*  for  ever " — and  the 
point  is  of  primary  importance  for  our  interpretation  of 
the  New  Testament — means  only  "till  the  Judgment." 
In  Jub.  V.  10,  fallen  angels  are  "bound  in  the  depths 
of  the  earth  for  ever,  till  the  day  of  the  great  condemna- 
tion when  judgment  is  executed."  In  Enoch  v.  5 
we  find  the  words  "  The  years  of  your  destruction  shall 
be  multiplied  in  eternal  execration,  and  ye  shall  find 
no  mercy,"  but  the  following  verses,  which  deal  with 
the  blessedness  of  the  righteous,  seem  to  contemplate 
a  temporary  state  of  bliss  ("  They  shall  complete  the 
number  of  the  days  of  their  life  ").  It  is  therefore  not 
probable  that  the  tortures  of  the  lost  were  regarded 
as  strictly  everlasting.  In  Enoch  x.  5  "  for  ever  "  with 
reference  to  punishment  stands  for  seventy  "  genera- 
tions," while  in  1;.  10  "  eternallife  "  denotes  500  years. 
Or  again  in  2  Baruch  xl.  3  we  read  that  the  principate 
of  the  Messiah  "  will  stand  for  ever,  until  the  world 
of  corruption  is  at  an  end"  ;  cf.  Ixxiii.  i.  Similarly 
4  Mac,  which  apparently  emphasises  the  eternity  of 
punishment  so  strongly,  can  yet  speak  of  the  life  of 
the  blessed  as  7ro\vxpovLo<;  ("very  long,"  xvii.  12). 
It  is  clear  then   that   "  for  ever,"    "  eternal,"   and   the 


i8o  IMMORTALITY  v 

like   sometimes,   if  not   always,  mean  either  "  for  the 
duration  of  an  aeon^''  or  "until  the  final  judgment." 

What,  then,  is  supposed  to  happen  to  the  sinner 
after  this  ?  There  are  not  a  few  passages  which 
suggest  annihilation.  In  Enoch  xix._  i  angels  are 
judged  "until  they  are  made  an  end  of"  xlviii.  9, 
speaking  of  the  kings  and  the  mighty,  reads  "  On  the 
day  of  their  anguish  and  affliction  they  shall  not  be 
able  to  save  themselves.  And  I  will  give  them  over 
into  the  hands  of  mine  elect  :  as  straw  in  the  fire  shall 
they  burn  before  the  face  of  the  holy  :  as  lead  in  the 
water  shall  they  sink  before  the  face  of  the  righteous, 
and  no  trace  of  them  shall  any  more  be  found."  Such 
language  undoubtedly  suggests  complete  destruction  ; 
cf.  also  ch.  liii.  Similarly  4  Esdras  xii.  1^1^^  xiii.  10  fF. 
38,  seem  to  imply  that  the  enemies  of  the  Messiah  shall 
simply  be  destroyed,  and  the  language  of  the  Psalms 
of  Solomon,  which  is  mainly  modelled  on  that  of  the 
Old  Testament,  is  to  the  same  effect. 

Other  passages  do  at  first  sight  suggest  an  indefinite 
period  of  punishment  after  death  ;  e.g.  Enoch  xci.  9, 
"  they  shall  be  cast  into  the  Judgment  of  fire,  and 
perish  in  wrath  and  grievous  judgment  for  ever "  ; 
4  Mac.  ix.  9,  "  thou  for  our  cruel  murder  shalt  suffer 
at  the  hands  of  divine  justice  sufficient  torment  by  fire 
for  ever "  ;  x.  11,  "  thou  for  thy  impiety  and  thy 
cruelty  shalt  endure  torments  without  end."  The 
fiercely  fanatical  and  nationalist  Book  of  Judith  goes 
out  of  its  way  to  explain  that  the  fire  does  not  destroy. 
The  Almighty  puts  '*  fire  and  worms  in  the  flesh  of 
oppressors,  and  they  shall  weep  and  feel  their  pain 
for  ever"  (xvi.  17  ;  cf.  Enoch  cviii.  3),  Such  passages 
clearly  exclude  immediate  annihilation  after  death,  but 
in  view  of  the  examples  given  above  of  the  loose  use 
of  *'  for  ever,"  it  is  dangerous  to  interpret  them  as 
necessarily  implying  everlasting  punishment.  In  the 
Secrets  of  Enoch  part  of  the  third  heaven  is  a  hell 
prepared  for  "  an  eternal  inheritance  "  for  sinners,  and 


V  THE  BIBLE  AND  HELL  i8i 

mansions  are  assigned  to  good  and  to  bad,  but  in  the 
climax  of  ch,  ixv.,  after  the  "  seven  weeks  "  there  is  one 
"  aeon  "  when  time  ceases  and  the  righteous  live  eternallv, 
while  the  fate  of  the  wicked  is  passed  over  in  silence. 

With  regard  to  the  result  of  such  punishment  after 
death,  it  is  not  infrequently  depicted  as  bringing  open- 
ing of  eyes  and  repentance.  In  Enoch  Ixiii.  i  the  kings 
and  the  mighty  implore  respite  from  their  torments  in 
order  that  they  may  fall  down  and  worship  before  the 
Lord  of  Spirits  and  confess  their  sins  before  him.  In 
Ixvii.  9,  "  in  proportion  as  the  burning  of  their  bodies 
becomes  severe,  a  corresponding  change  shall  take 
place  in  their  spirit  for  ever  and  ever  ;  for  before  the 
Lord  of  Spirits  none  shall  utter  an  idle  word."  So  in 
4  Esdras  ix.  12  those  who  have  defied  the  Law  during 
the  time  of  repentance  "  must  be  brought  to  know  after 
death  by  torment."  But  though  we  might  seem  here 
on  the  verge  of  a  more  ethical  view  in  which  punish- 
ment could  be  regarded  as  remedial,  the  possibility  of 
any  efficacious  repentance  after  death  is  explicitly  denied 
both  in  2  Baruch  and  4  Esdras. 

In  a  case  such  as  this,  however,  even  denial  may 
mark  a  step  forward,  since  it  at  any  rate  shows  that 
the  difficulty  is  coming  to  be  realised.  And  in  fact  the 
two  books  just  mentioned  do  stand  on  a  higher  ethical 
level  in  this  respect  than  the  rest  of  the  Apocalyptic 
literature,  and  even,  it  must  be  confessed,  than  the  New 
Testament  itself.^  For  they  realise  the  tremendous  moral 
problem  involved  if  anything  like  eternal  punishment  or 
extinction  is  to  be  regarded  as  the  future  fate  of  a  large 
proportion  of  mankind.  There  is  a  curiously  modern 
note  in  passages  such  as  the  following  from  4  Esdras : — 

O  thou  earth,  why  hast  thou  brought  forth,  if  the  mind  is 
sprung  from  the  dust  as  every  other  created  thing  !  It  had 
been  better  if  the  dust  itself  had  even  been  unborn,  that  the 
mind  might  not  have  come  into  being  from  it.  But  as  it  is, 
the  mind  grou's  with  us,  and  on  this  account  vi^e  are  tormented, 

*   Sec  below,  p.  214,  «.  2. 


1 82  IMMORTALITY  v 

because  we  perish  and  know  it.  Let  the  human  race  lament, 
but  the  beasts  of  the  field  be  glad  !  Let  all  the  earth-born 
mourn,  but  let  the  cattle  and  flocks  rejoice  !  For  it  is  far 
better  with  them  than  with  us  ;  for  they  have  no  judgment  to 
look  for,  neither  do  they  know  of  any  torture  or  of  any  salvation 
promised  to  them  after  death.  But  what  doth  it  profit  us  that  we 
shall  be  preserved  alive,  but  yet  suffer  great  torment  ?  For  all 
the  earth-born  are  defiled  with  iniquities,  full  of  sins,  laden  with 
ofFences.  And  if  after  death  we  were  not  to  come  into  judgment, 
it  might,  perchance,  have  been  far  better  for  us  (vii.  62  fF.). 

This  is  my  first  and  last  word  ;  better  had  it  been  that  the 
earth  had  not  produced  Adam,  or  else,  having  once  produced 
him,  for  thee  to  have  restrained  him  from  sinning.  For  what 
doth  it  profit  us  all  that  in  the  present  we  must  live  in  grief,  and 
after  death  look  for  punishment  ?  (vii.  1 16  fF.  ;  see  also  x.  9  f.). 

What,  indeed,  is  the  purpose  of  the  infinite  skill  and  labour 
lavished  upon  man  ?  We  are  all  one  fashioning,  the  work  of 
thine  hands,  as  thou  hast  said.  .  .  .  And  afterwards  thou  sus- 
tainest  it  in  thy  mercy,  and  nourishest  it  in  thy  righteousness  ; 
thou  disciplinest  it  through  thy  law,  and  reprovest  it  in  thy 
wisdom.  Thou  wilt  kill  it — as  it  is  thy  creature,  and  quicken 
it — as  it  is  thy  work  !  If  then,  with  a  light  word  thou  shalt 
destroy  him  who  with  such  infinite  labour  has  been  fashioned 
by  thy  command,  to  what  purpose  was  he  made?  (viii.  7  fF.). 

The  writer  of  the  book  can  himself  find  no  solution 
to  the  problem.  The  angel  bids  him  "  rejoice  over  the 
few  that  shall  be  saved  and  not  grieve  over  the  multi- 
tude that  perish  "  ;  "  many  have  been  created,  but  few 
shall  be  saved."  He  falls  back,  as  does  St.  Paul  in  a 
similar  connection,  on  the  inscrutability  of  the  ways  of 
Providence,  coupled  with  an  almost  desperate  faith  in 
the  love  of  God,  "  Lovest  thou  him  [Israel]  better  than 
him  that  made  him  .?  "  "  Thou  comest  far  short  of  being 
able  to  love  my  creation  more  than  I."  The  consistent 
application  of  this  principle  must  occupy  us  later  ;  we 
can  only  in  passing  pay  our  respect  to  the  nameless 
questioner  who  realised  so  clearly  the  fundamental 
elements  of  the  problem.^ 

^  For  a  fuller  discussion  of  the  teaching  of  4  Esdras  on  this  and  related  questions, 
see  the  writer's  article  on  "The  Fourth  Book  of  Esdras  and  St,  Paul"  {^Expository 
Times,  xxvii.  p.  551). 


V  THE  BIBLE  AND  HELL  183 

To  sum  up  the  results  of  our  survey  :  the  Apocalyptic 
literature,  unlike  the  Old  Testament,  Jays  considerable 
stress  on  punishments  after  death,  and  this  stress  is  very 
definitely  connected  with  feelings  of  bitterness  towards 
persecutors,  oppressors,  or  heretics.  Various  views  are 
held  as  to  the  duration  of  such  punishment,  but  it  is 
clear  that  "  for  ever,"  "  eternal,"  and  the  like,  rarely,  if 
ever,  connote  everlastingness.  There  is  no  trace  of  any 
idea  of  an  efficacious  repentance  after  death,  though  the 
sporadic  hints  of  the  efi^ects  of  punishment  in  opening 
the  eyes  of  the  sufi'erer  contain  the  germs  of  a  higher 
point  of  view.  The  ethical  problem  of  the  fate  of  the 
mass  of  mankind  is  raised,  but  no  solution  is  found. 

ZOROASTRIAN    INFLUENCE    ON    JeWISH    EsCHATOLOGY 

This  doctrine  of  future  punishment  was,  as  we  have 
seen,  a  new  feature  in  Jewish  thought.  It  is  natural  to 
ask  whether  it  can  be  traced  to  any  external  non-Jewish 
influences.  A  full  consideration  of  the  subject  would 
involve  a  discussion  of  the  sources  of  the  post-exilic 
eschatology  as  a  whole,  and  the  influence  of  Babylonian, 
Egyptian,  Persian,  and  Greek  ideas  upon  its  develop- 
ment. If,  however,  we  confine  ourselves  to  a  few 
remarks  bearing  on  the  vital  point  of  the  conception 
of  punishment  after  death  in  contemporary  religions, 
Babylonian  religion  at  once  drops  out,  since  it  had 
no  real  doctrine  of  rewards  and  punishments  in  the 
other  world.  "  The  absence  of  the  ethical  factor  in  the 
conception  of  life  after  death,  preventing  .  .  .  the  rise 
of  a  doctrine  of  retribution  for  the  wicked,  and  belief 
in  a  better  fate  for  those  who  had  lived  a  virtuous 
and  godly  life,  had  at  least  a  compensation  in  not  lead- 
ing to  any  dogma  of  actual  bodily  sufferings  for  the 
dead.  ...  A  hell  full  of  tortures  is  the  counterpart 
of  a  heaven  full  of  joys.  The  Babylonian-Assyrian  re- 
ligion had  neither  the  one  nor  the  other."  '      Egyptian 

'  Jastrow,  Religious  Belief  in  Babylonia  and  Aisyria,  p.  373. 


1 84  IMMORTALITY  v 

religion,  on  the  other  hand,  in  its  faith  of  Osiris,  had 
developed  its  view  of  the  weighing  of  the  soul  and  of 
judgment  after  death  ;  the  condemned,  however,  were 
destroyed,  not  punished  indefinitely.^  The  Greeks  had 
their  well-known  myths  of  tortures  in  Hades,  and 
theories  of  future  punishment  were  carried  further  in 
the  Orphic  Mysteries.  But  outside  Orphism  punish- 
ments were  only  thought  of  in  the  case  of  notorious 
and  very  special  sinners,  like  Sisyphus  and  Tantalus,  and 
as  in  the  "  Myth  of  Er  "  at  the  close  of  Plato's  Republic. 
The  Olympian  religion  was  too  easygoing  to  believe  in 
eternal  punishment  ;  and  it  is  thought  by  some  scholars 
that  so  far  as  it  existed  at  all  the  belief  was  due  to 
Orphism,  where  it  was  essentially  the  fate  of  the  un- 
initiated.- In  the  same  way  Dr.  Farnell  writes  :  ^  "  To 
suppose  that  the  crowds  that  sought  the  privilege  of 
initiation  were  tormented,  as  modern  Europe  has  been 
at  certain  times,  by  ghostly  terrors  of  judgment,  is  to 
misconceive  the  average  Greek  mind.  The  inferno  of 
Greek  mythology  is  far  less  lurid  than  Dante's,  and  it 
is  to  the  credit  of  the  Greek  temperament  that  it  never 
took  its  goblin  world  very  seriously,  though  the  belief 
was  generally  prevalent  that  the  gods  might  punish 
flagrant  sinners  after  death." 

The  main  influence  behind  the  Jewish  eschatology, 
in  this  as  in  other  doctrines,  must  undoubtedly  be  sought 
in  Zoroastrianism.  Here  we  find  the  definite  separation 
of  good  and  bad  after  death,  with  rewards  and  punish- 
ments, mainly  by  fire.  On  the  question  how  far  the 
punishment  was  conceived  of  as  eternal  there  is  some 
doubt  as  to  the  original  teaching  of  Zoroaster  himself.* 

^  Enc.  Rel.  a>:d  Ethics,  s.-v.  "  Egyptian  Religion,"  v.  p.  243. 

-  Cf.  Miss  Harrison,  Prolegomena  to  Greek  Religion,  pp,  612  ff. 

"   Cults  of  the  Greek  States,  iii.  p.  193. 

^  Moulton  (Early  Zoroastrianism,  p.  312)  holds,  in  contrast  to  his  previously  ex- 
pressed view,  that  the  Gathas  imply  "  penal  suffering  without  end."  He  admits, 
however,  that  the  molten  metal  which  accomplishes  the  separation  suggests 
annihilation  of  the  sinner  or  of  the  sin,  and  he  adds  a  note  by  Prof.  Jackson  to  the 
effect  that  there  is  in  Zoroastrianism  exactly  the  same  problem  as  in  Judaism  with 
regard  to  the  real  meaning  of  the  term  "  everlasting."  The  Pahlavi  interpretation 
renders  the  original  phrase  by  "till  the  future  body"  or  "until  the  resurrection." 
See  also  pp.  157,  173,  which  leave  the  doctrine  equally  ambiguous. 


V  THE  BIBLE  AND  HELL  185 

There  is,  however,  no  doubt  that  in  later  developments 
of  Zoroastrianism,  which  go  back  to  a  period  before  the 
date  of  the  Jewish  Apocalyptic  literature,  and  therefore 
represent  the  form  of  Zoroastrianism  with  which  post- 
exilic  Judaism  came  in  contact,  the  belief  was  definitely 
held  that  the  punishment  of  the  sinner  only  lasted  till 
the  commencement  of  the  final  age  when  Ahriman  and 
his  hosts  are  annihilated  and  hell  itself  becomes  pure.^ 

This  brief  comparison  of  contemporary  thought, 
therefore,  confirms  the  position  already  reached  that 
the  question  of  strict  "  everlastingness  "  was  not  thought 
out  with  regard  to  the  punishment  of  the  sinner.  The 
ethical  instinct  required  that  he  should  suffer  after  death, 
if  he  had  prospered  here,  and  it  depicted  his  sufferings 
in  a  terrifying  form,  but  it  did  not  condemn  him  to  an 
eternal  hell. 

The  Teaching  of  the  New  Testament" 

We  find  in  the  New  Testament  a  sharp  division 
into  two  classes,  those  who  will  enter  the  kingdom  and 
those  who  will  not,  those  who  inherit  life  and  those 
whose  end  is  death,  the  sheep  and  the  goats.  We  are, 
however,  told  far  less  than  is  usually  supposed  about 
the  final  fate  of  the  latter,  and  details  as  to  future 
punishment  are  largely  confined  to  books  of  a  single 
type.  In  view  of  this  fact  it  will  be  simplest  to  make 
no  attempt  at  chronological  order  in  our  treatment  of 
its  literature,  but  to  clear  the  ground  by  beginning 
with  the  groups  in  which  the  subject  is  least  prominent. 

In  the  Johannine  literature,  outside  the  Apocalypse, 

'   Enc.  Rel.  and  Ethics,  s.-v.  "  Eschatology,"  v.  p.  376. 

"  The  reader  who  may  be  disinclined  for  detailed  discussions  of  passages  may 
omit  what  follows  and  pass  straight  on  to  the  summary  on  p.  198.  No  doubt  it 
would  be  convenient  if  such  discussions  could  be  short  and  simple,  but  the  New 
Testament  was  not  written  as  a  "Handbook  to  Theology."  It  consists  of  books 
written  for  different  purposes,  by  different  writers,  and  at  different  dates,  and  ex- 
pressed in  tiie  language  and  ideas  current  at  the  time.  It  is  therefore  wise,  on 
many  points  at  least,  to  look  with  some  suspicion  on  what  claim  to  be  brief  dog- 
matic statements  of  the  teaching  of  the  New  Testament,  unless  they  arc  based  on  a 
thorough  examination  and  comparison  of  the  relevant  passages  in  the  light  of  con- 
temporary modes  of  thought. 


1 86  IMMORTALITY  v 

the  main  thought  is  the  contrast  between  death  and 
life,  with  the  self-acting  judgment  of  the  hearer's 
own  attitude  towards  the  truth, ^  There  is  no  kind  of 
emphasis  on  the  future  punishment  of  the  sinner,  or 
on  what  his  "  death "  implies.  The  eschatological 
denunciations  of  the  Baptist  are  omitted  in  common 
with  practically  all  the  other  eschatological  features  of 
the  Synoptists,  The  passage  at  the  end  of  ch.  v., 
which  includes  the  awakening  to  a  resurrection  of 
judgment,  stands  alone,  and  may  perhaps  best  be  ac- 
counted for  as  a  more  or  less  inconsistent  retention  of 
the  popular  point  of  view.  Otherwise  the  writer 
contents  himself  with  saying  that  the  wrath  of  God 
abides  on  the  unbeliever  (iii.  36),  or  that  the  unfruitful 
branch  is  cast  into  the  fire  and  burned  (xv.  6),  a  phrase 
which  suggests  annihilation.^ 

In  the  teaching  of  St.  Paul  we  find  a  similar  anti- 
thesis between  death  and  life,  the  flesh  and  the  spirit. 
Sinners  cannot  inherit  the  Kingdom  of  God  (Gal.  v.  21, 
I  Cor.  vi.  9,  Eph.  V.  5)  ;  there  are  fairly  constant 
references  to  judgment  and  to  the  wrath  of  God,  especi- 
ally in  Romans.  But  it  is  very  doubtful  whether  St. 
Paul  speaks  of  the  resurrection  of  the  wicked  except 
in  so  far  as  it  is  implied  in  the  gathering  of  all  before 
the  judgment  seat  (Rom.  ii.  14  ff.,  2  Cor.  v.  10).  This 
is  indeed  emphasised  in  the  speeches  of  Acts  (cf.  xvii.  31, 
xxiv.  25  ;  cf.  St.  Peter  in  x.  42),  but  it  is  often  held 
that  on  this  point  St.  Luke  somewhat  misinterpreted 
his  master's  teaching.  In  the  Epistles  the  resurrection 
is  generally  something  to  be  won  or  attained  to  (Phil, 
iii.  11),  the  privilege  of  those  who  have  received  the 
adoption  of  sons  and  the  first-fruits  of  the  spirit  (cf. 
Luke  XX.  35).  Except  in  i  and  2  Thess.,  which  we 
shall  consider  later,  there  is  no  sort  of  doctrine  of  what 
happens  to  the  sinner  after  judgment,  certainly  no 
emphasis  is  laid  on  any  punishment,  eternal  or  other- 

^   Cf.  Essay  III.  p.  125. 
-   For  "the  sin  unto  death"  (i  John  v.  i6)  see  below,  p.  195. 


V  THE  BIBLE  AND  HELL  187 

wise.  This  feature  is  somewhat  remarkable,  as  St.  Paul 
was  not  always  specially  tender  to  those  who  differed 
from  him,  and  it  is  noticeable  that  in  the  Pastoral 
Epistles,  with  all  the  fierceness  of  their  denunciations 
of  false  teachers,  there  is  no  reference  to  their  future 
doom,  except,  perhaps,  in  2  Tim.  iv.  14.^ 

In  Hebrews  we  find  considerable  stress  on  the  finality 
of  choice  and  the  impossibility  of  repentance  for  back- 
sliders. Punishment  is  spoken  of  in  terms  of  fire  which 
devours  (x.  27)  and  consumes  (xii.  29)  ;  the  language 
not  only  suggests  but  implies  annihilation. 

Acts  has  nothing  bearing  on  our  subject,  except  the 
references  to  judgment  already  quoted.  Here  again 
this  mildness  of  tone  in  a  book  which  deals  largely  with 
persecution  and  opposition  is  in  strong  contrast  to  the 
language  of  the  Apocalyptic  books.  A  similar  reti- 
cence is  found  in  i  Peter,  which,  again,  is  written  in  an 
atmosphere  of  persecution.  The  furthest  the  writer 
goes  is  to  speak  of  the  approaching  judgment  ;  in  it 
"  if  the  righteous  is  scarcely  saved,  where  shall  the 
ungodly  and  sinner  appear.?"  (iv.  18).  James  again 
only  speaks  generally  of  the  coming  of  the  judge  who 
is  able  both  to  save  and  to  destroy  (iv.  12).  It  is 
worth  comparing  the  passage  in  ch.  v.  on  the  tyranny 
of  the  rich,  with  its  reserve  as  to  their  future  fate,  with 
Enoch  chs.  xciv.  ff".,  where  very  similar  language  is  used 
combined  with  a  fierce  exultation  in  their  approaching 
torments  and  destruction.- 

We  pass  to  the  teaching  of  the  Synoptists.  Here 
the  immediate  goal  is  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom, 
whether  on  earth  or  in  Heaven  ;  but  it  must  not  be 
assumed  that  the  conception  is  in  all  respects  identical 
with  our  modern  view  of  the  "  Heaven  "  awaiting  the 
good  after  death  or  judgment.  There  is  a  sharp  dicho- 
tomy between  those  who  will  enter  the  Kingdom  and 

'  "The  Lord  shall  rcwanl  him  (Alexander)  '"  ;  the  words  are  a  quotation  from 
I's.  Ixii.  12,  Prov.  xxiv.   i ;,  ami  seem  to  mean  simply,  "I  leave  him  to  God." 

"  The  passage  in  James  is  perhaps  based  on  Enoch  ;  "day  of  slaughter"  occurs 
in  both,  but  this  phrase  may  have  been  taken  independently  from  Jer.  xii.  3. 


1 88  IMMORTALITY  v 

those  who  are  to  be  cast  out.  Here  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  and  the  early  Church  was  in  entire  agreement 
with  contemporary  Jewish  thought,  the  only  difference 
being  as  to  the  principles  on  which  the  composition  of 
the  two  classes  was  to  be  determined.  Few  in  fact 
find  the  narrow  way  ;  "  many  "  will  find  themselves 
shut  out  (Mt.  vii,  13,  I>k.  xiii.  23  ff.).  Some  kind  of 
penalty  is  undoubtedly  contemplated  for  those  who 
refuse  the  Gospel.  What  is  its  nature  ?  How  far  do 
Our  Lord  and  the  Gospels  teach  a  doctrine  of  "  hell  "  ? 

Attention  may  first  be  called  to  a  fact  which  has 
been  very  insufficiently  realised  ;  there  is  a  marked  and 
striking  difference  in  this  respect  between  the  teaching 
of  Our  Lord  as  reported  by  St.  Luke  and  His  teaching 
as  reported  by  St.  Matthew.  It  will  be  necessary  to 
give  evidence  of  this  statement  in  some  detail. 

"  Fire  "  as  applied  to  future  punishment  is  found  in 
Luke  only  in  the  teaching  of  the  Baptist  (Lk.  iii.  9, 
17),  in  Mark  only  in  the  "offences"  passage  (Mk. 
ix.  43  ff.).  By  Matthew  it  is  used  10  times,  in  6 
different  contexts. 

"  Gehenna  "  occurs  in  Lk.  only  in  xii.  5,  in  Mk.  only 
in  the  "offences"  passage,  in  Mt.  7  times  (5  different 
contexts).^ 

"  Eternal "  (atwi/to?)  is  never  used  by  Lk.  of  future 
punishment,  by  Mk.  only  of  "  the  eternal  sin,"  by  Mt. 
3  times,  as  well  as  being  implied  in  the  substantival 
phrase,  "  either  in  this  aeon  or  in  that  which  is  to  come," 
once  (xii.  32). 

"Day  of  judgment"  is  never  used  by  Lk.  ;  Mt.  4 
times.  Lk.  has  "  in  the  judgment  "  3  times  ;  Mt.  this, 
or  similar  phrases,  5  times  ;  Mk.  has  neither.  Mk. 
and  Lk.,  but  not  Mt.,  according  to  the  best  texts,  have 
the  phrase,  "  these  shall  receive  greater  condemnation  " 
{jjrepia-a-OTepov  Kpt/xa^  Mk.  xii.  40). 

'  Elsewhere  in  the  New  Testament  only  in  James  iii.  6  (the  tongue  set  on  fire 
of  hell).  In  Lk.  xvi.  25  ff.  (the  Lazarus  parable)  we  have  "Hades,"  ''torments," 
and  "  flame." 


V  THE  BIBLE  AND  HELL  189 

"Outer  darkness"  occurs  in  Mt.  3  times  (viii,  12, 
xxii.  13,  XXV.  30),  and  nowhere  else.  Since  in  each 
case  Lk.  has  close  parallels  to  the  Matthean  narratives, 
his  omission  of  the  reference  to  future  punishment  is 
significant.  Similarly  the  phrase,  "■  There  shall  be 
weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth  "  occurs  in  Lk.  only  in 
xiii.  28,  while  Mt.  has  it  6  times.  In  Mt.  xxii.  13, 
xxiv.  51,  XXV,  30,  the  fact  that  the  more  or  less 
parallel  Lucan  context  does  not  contain  the  words  is 
again  significant.  Again  Lk.  in  xxii.  22  omits  the 
words,  applied  to  Judas  both  in  Mt.  and  Mk.,  "  it  were 
good  for  that  man  if  he  had  not  been  born." 

Positively  there  are  indications  of  a  milder  view  of 
the  future  life  in  the  Lazarus  parable  (the  context  where 
future  punishment  is  most  prominent  in  Lk.),  with  its 
hint  of  the  rich  man's  better  feelings  in  his  torment,  in 
the  repentance  of  the  thief  at  the  last  moment,  and  in 
the  saying  about  many  and  few  stripes  (Lk.  xii.  47), 
implying  degrees  of  punishment.  All  these  are  peculiar 
to  the  third  Gospel,  while  Lk.  alone,  after  the  saying, 
"  one  shall  be  taken,  the  other  left,"  adds  the  question, 
"  Where,  Lord  ^  "  with  the  ambiguous  answer,  "  Where 
the  body  is,  thither  will  the  eagles  also  be  gathered 
together"  (xvii.  37).  This  logion  is  clearly  intended 
to  exclude  any  undue  dogmatising  as  to  the  future.^ 

We  have,  therefore,  sufficient  evidence  that  Luke's 
attitude  as  to  the  future  punishment  of  the  sinner 
excluded  from  the  Kingdom  is  much  milder  than 
Matthew's.  The  question  at  once  arises.  Which  is  nearer 
to  Our  Lord's   own   teaching  ?  -     Has  Luke  toned  it 

'  The  saying  "Thou  shall  not  come  out  thence  till  thou  hast  paid  the  uttermost 
farthing"  occurs  both  in  Mt.  v.  25  and  Lk.  xii.  59.  It  seems  to  be  a  general 
statement  of  the  principle  that  when  the  time  tor  reconciliation  is  allowed  to  slip 
by  the  law  must  take  its  course.  It  is  not  clear  that  it  refers  in  any  way  to  God's 
dealings  with  man.  If,  however,  it  is  to  be  understood  as  the  sudden  introduction 
of  a  pronouncement  as  to  the  nature  of  future  punishment,  it  is  ambiguous.  It  may 
at  least  imply  that  the  debt  can  ultimately  be  paid. 

'^  It  must  be  remembered  that  even  when  we  have  decided  which  is  the  earliest 
form  of  the  varying  traditions  presented  to  us  in  our  present  Gospels,  it  cannot  be 
assumed  tiiat  wc  have  aiways  yot  back  to  the  ipsiisima  -verba  of  Christ.  See  below, 
p.  200. 


I90  IMMORTALITY  v 

down  or  Matthew  added  to  it  ?  It  is  «  priori  possible 
that  both  processes  have  been  at  work  to  some  extent. 
On  the  one  hand  Luke's  reticence  might  be  an  instance 
of  his  "  PauHnism  "  ;  we  have  already  noted  a  similar 
reserve  in  the  Pauline  Epistles.  On  the  other,  the 
language  of  Matthew  is  in  line  with  the  general  Judaic 
and  Apocalyptic  tone  of  the  first  Gospel,  and  its 
accuracy  will  depend  on  whether  these  features  as  a 
whole  can  be  regarded  as  representing  the  original 
teaching  of  Christ  (see  Essay  III.  pp.  123  if.). 

At  this  point  we  may  ask,  What  light  is  thrown  on 
the  question  by  Mark,  our  earliest  Gospel  ?  The 
relevant  passages  are  :  iii.  28-29  {^^^  against  the  Holy 
Ghost)  ;  viii.  ^S  (^^^  possibility  of  losing  one's  "life," 
'>\rvx'n)\  ix.  43  ff.  (the  command  to  cut  off  what  offends)  ; 
the  sayings  that  the  Pharisees  shall  receive  greater 
condemnation  (xii.  40),  and  that  it  were  better  for 
Judas  if  he  had  not  been  born  (xiv.  21).^  The  latter 
saying  occurs  in  Enoch  xxxviii.  2  (plural  instead  of 
singular),  and  though  Our  Lord  may  have  quoted  a 
current  saying  (whether  directly  from  Enoch  or  not), 
the  fact  of  its  being  a  quotation,  together  with  its 
omission  by  Luke,  makes  it  very  possible  that  it  may 
be  an  early  addition  to  an  original  "  woe  to  that  man 
by  whom  he  is  betrayed."  The  Marcan  language  as  a 
whole  is  at  any  rate  vague  and  lays  little  emphasis  on 
future  punishment ;  it  supports  the  originality  of  Luke 
in  this  respect  as  against  Matthew.  Again,  in  view  of 
the  fact  that  Matthew  shows  definite  traces  of  later 
controversies  between  Jews  and  Christians,  it  does 
become  very  probable  that  these  have  left  their  mark  in 
a  heightening  of  the  severity  of  Our  Lord's  language 
against  the  Pharisees  and  other  unbelievers  and  apos- 
tates."    We    have    already    seen,   and   shall   see  again, 

1  In  the  non-Marcan  appendix  (xvi.  i6)  we  have  the  general  statement,  "he 
that  (iisbelieveth  shall  be  condemned." 

^  It  may  be  remarked  that  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  strict  inerrancy  of  the 
Bible,  the  theory  that  Luke  has  toned  down  or  omitted  the  severe  sayings  is  no 
easier  than  the  theory  that  Matthew  has  added  to  them.     Those   who  hold  the 


V  THE  BIBLE  AND  HELL  191 

that   the  belief  in  hell  has  always  owed  much  to  such 
types  of  religious  bitterness. 

There  remains  to  discuss  the  books  in  which  the 
doctrine  of  future  punishment  is  prominent.  They 
are  Matthew,  i  and  2  Thessalonians,  2  Peter,  Jude,  and 
Revelation.  The  curious  significance  of  this  grouping 
of  books  is  at  once  apparent,  in  that  they  are  the  very 
books  which  are  recognised  as  showing  most  clearly  the 
influence  of  contemporary  Apocalyptic  ideas. 

In  I  Thess.  v.  3  we  hear  of  sudden  destruction  and 
wrath  (v.  9)  falling  on  the  unwary  :  the  nature  and 
result  of  the  vengeance  remains  undefined.  The  language 
of  2  Thess.  goes  further;  here  God  "recompenses 
affliction  to  them  that  afflict  you,"  and  brings 
"  vengeance,"  "  punishment,  even  eternal  destruction 
from  the  face  of  the  Lord  "  (i.  6  ff.).  We  note  the  follow- 
ing points.  The  passage  suggests  annihilation  rather 
than  indefinite  torment  ;  it  is  strongly  Apocalyptic 
in  character  ;  and  once  again  the  main  motive  is  in- 
dignation towards  persecutors.  Finally  this  language 
occurs  in  an  early  Epistle  (assuming  the  authenticity  of 
2  Thess.,  which,  however,  is  not  undisputed),  and  does 
not,  as  we  have  already  seen,  represent  St.  Paul's  later 
teaching. 

2  Peter  and  Jude  are,  of  course,  definitely  in  line 
with  the  older  Apocalyptic  books  ;  the  stress  is  on  the 
punishment  of  fallen  angels,  false  teachers,  and  rebels 
against  authority  ;  the  language  used  is  conventional 
and  somewhat  vague,  suggesting  death  and  destruction. 

The  Apocalypse  has  much  to  say  of  the  final  doom 
of  the  sinner.  The  prominent  features  are  such  things 
as  the  second  death,  the  lake  of  fire,  the  abyss,  and  the 

doctrine  of  hell  argue  rightly  that,  if  it  is  ex  hypothesi  true,  it  is  the  real  charity  to 
"  declare  the  whole  counsel  of  God  "  (see  e.g.  Liddon's  Sermon  on  this  subject  in 
Clerical  Life  and  JVork),  and  that  it  is  treason  to  gloss  over  it.  Luke's  consistent 
omission  of  this  type  of  teaching  is,  therefore,  very  hard  to  explain  on  any  theory 
that  the  Gospels  were  mechanically  inspired  in  their  record  of  Christ's  teaching. 
From  the  modern  point  of  view  there  is  no  special  difficulty  either  in  Matthew's 
over-emphasis  or  in  Luke's  toning  down,  and  we  are  free  to  choose  between  the  two 
on  the  principles  of  historical  criticism. 


192  IMMORTALITY  v 

familiar  elements  of  earlier  Apocalypses.  It  should, 
however,  be  noted  that  many  of  the  "  woes "  refer 
to  the  temporary  tribulations  which  usher  in  the 
establishment  of  the  Kingdom.  Once  mor^  attention 
may  be  called  to  the  fact  that  the  underlying  motive  of 
the  book  is  denunciation  of  the  persecuting  power  of 
Rome  and  the  conviction  of  its  final  doom. 

We  go  on  to  ask  how  far  even  these  books  teach 
the  everlasting  nature  of  the  punishment  of  which 
they  speak.  They  use  freely  the  figure  of  fire, 
sometimes  with  the  epithet  "  unquenchable."  Fire 
suggests  suffering  with  one  of  two  results,  either  the 
purging  away  of  dross  and  impurities  (it  is  so  used 
in  I  Cor.  iii.  13,  15,  in  an  eschatological  context, 
I  Peter  i.  7,  Rev.  iii.  18)  or  the  destruction  of  the 
whole  of  what  is  committed  to  it.  This  latter  is  certainly 
the  prima  facie  impression  conveyed  when  we  read  of 
chaff  (Matt.  iii.  12)  or  tares  (xiii.  40)  cast  into  the  fire 
(cf.  John  XV.  6  and  Heb.  x,  27,  etc.).  It  would,  in  fact, 
be  difficult  to  find  any  figure  which  suggests  more 
completely  speedy  and  final  annihilation.  "  Unquench- 
able "  in  this  connection  means  simply  that  the  fire  will 
not  be  extinguished  until  it  has  done  its  work  ;  the 
same  applies  to  the  undying  worm  of  Mk.  ix.  48,  etc. 
So  generally,  unless  we  hear  explicitly  to  the  contrary, 
we  have  no  right  to  assume  that  the  victims  of  the  fire 
suffer  eternally  without  being  consumed  ;  that  they  do 
live  on  is  never  stated  in  the  New  Testament.  The 
same  principles  apply  to  language  about  death,  the 
second  death,  destruction,  and  the  like.  They  all 
suggest  ceasing  to  be. 

There  remains  the  word  "  aeonian "  {aldavtos;) 
together  with  cognate  phrases  using  the  noun  aeon.  As 
we  have  seen,  in  the  Synoptics  these  are  applied  to 
future  punishment  only  in  Mt.  xviii.  8.,  xxv.  41,  46, 
xii.  32,  with  the  exception  of  Mk.  iii.  29.  Elsewhere, 
outside  the  Apocalypse,  they  occur  only  in  2  Thess. 
i.  9,  Jude  7,  13.     John  viii.  52,  x.  28,  xi.  26  promises 


V  THE  BIBLE  AND  HELL  193 

that  the  believer  shall  not  die  "  for  ever  "  (et9  rbv  aloiva) 
and  so  implies  that  others  may  do  so.  It  is  recognised 
that  the  translation  ''everlasting,"  found  in  A.V.,  is 
wrong  ;  R.V.  has  "  eternal."  ^  The  word  properly 
means  "age-long,"  lasting  for  an  aeon,  whatever  that 
may  be.  It  is  used  freely  in  the  Septuagint  of  things 
which  are  in  no  sense  everlasting,  and  takes  its  meaning 
from  the  context.  The  Jews  of  the  day  believed  in  a 
variety  of  aeons  or  ages,  including  sometimes  a  temporary 
Messianic  age.  No  doubt  in  the  New  Testament 
"  aeonian  "  is  used  vaguely  ;  the  point  is  that  we  have 
no  right  to  read  into  it  any  metaphysical  idea  of 
unending  duration.  As  we  have  seen  with  regard  to 
the  Apocalyptic  books,  from  which  this  language  is 
derived,  there  are  various  views  as  to  the  duration  of 
punishment,  and  "  for  ever  "  sometimes  means  only  till 
the  final  judgment  or  the  like.  We  have,  in  fact,  a 
clear  example  of  this  use  in  the  New  Testament  ; 
Jude  6  speaks  of  angels  "  kept  in  everlasting  bonds 
under  darkness  unto  the  judgment  of  the  great  day''  The 
word  used  here  is  not  "  aeonian,"  but  another  Greek 
word  (atSio?),  which  actually  emphasises  unendingness 
more  strongly.  If  this  can  be  used  in  this  way  much 
more  can  "aeonian."  If  we  look  at  the  context  of  the 
New  Testament  passages  we  see  that  in  Mt.  xviii.  8  it  is 
applied  to  fire,  in  2  Thess.  i.  9  to  destruction  ;  both  of 
these  are  compatible  with  annihilation,  while  when  we 
read  in  Jude  7  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  "  suffering  the 
punishment  of  eternal  fire,"  it  is  not  an  obvious  inter- 
pretation that  their  inhabitants  have  been  miraculously 
kept  alive  to  feel  it.  There  are,  however,  passages  in 
Revelation  where  unending  duration  is  suggested  by  the 
phrase  "  to  ages  of  ages  (eh  aloiva<;  tmv  alcovcov).  Let  it 
be  noted  that  this  in  itself  implies  that  anything  belong- 
ing to  a  single  "  aeon  "  was  not  necessarily  unending. 

'  The  difference  between  the  two  may  not  be  obvious  at  first  sight.  The  point 
is  that  "eternal"  need  not  suggest  endless  duration  ;  it  may  apply  to  that  which 
belongs  to  another  order  of  being  and  is  out  of  time,  cf.  Essay  III.  pp.  97  fl. 

o 


194  IMMORTALITY  v 

The  phrase  is  used  in  xix.  3  of  the  burning  of  Babylon — 
not  necessarily  a  personal  reference  at  all — in  xx.  10  of 
the  torments  of  the  devil,  the  beast  and  the  false  prophet, 
and  in  xiv,  1 1  of  the  worshippers  of  the  beast.  The 
last  passage  is  the  most  important  ;  it  is,  however,  a 
direct  reminiscence  of  Isaiah  xxxiv.  10,  which  refers  to 
the  desolation  of  the  Land  of  Edom,  In  Isaiah 
there  is  certainly  no  idea  of  the  unending  torment  of 
men  ;  it  is  simply  a  picture  of  complete  doom  on  a 
country,  and  it  is  precarious  to  read  too  much  into  the 
quotation  of  such  a  phrase  in  a  very  rhetorical  context 
such  as  Rev,  xiv.  In  xix.  20  it  is  only  the  beast  and 
the  false  prophet  who  are  cast  alive  into  the  lake  of  fire  ; 
their  followers  are  killed  and  their  flesh  given  to  the 
birds.  The  contradiction  with  xiv.  1 1  shows  how  far 
we  are  from  any  idea  of  a  formal  doctrine  of  the 
unending  punishment  of  sinners.  Indeed  when  we  find 
cut-and-dried  theological  dogmas  based  on  the  obviously 
figurative  and  conventional  language  of  the  Apocalypse, 
we  can  only  wonder  at  the  artificiality  of  the  older 
Biblical  exegesis. 

There  remain  three  important  passages  in  the  Gospels, 
in  which  it  is  argued  that  the  context  itself  clearly 
implies  everlasting  punishment. 

(a)  Blasphemy  against  the  Holy  Ghost  (Mk.  iii.  28, 
Mt.  xii.  31,  Lk.  xii.  10).  •  This  saying  of  Our  Lord's 
is  one  of  those  which  occur  in  a  slightly  difl^erent 
version  in  Mark  and  also  in  Q — the  hypothetical 
document  assumed  to  have  been  incorporated,  in  some 
form  or  another,  in  the  first  and  third  Gospels. 
Wherever  Mark  and  Q  contain  similar  matter  it  will 
usually  be  found  that  Matthew  combines  the  two 
versions,  while  Luke  either  gives  both,  but  in  different 
contexts,  or  prefers  to  follow  Q.  Scholars  are  divided 
on  the  question  whether  in  these  cases  Mark's  version 
was  derived  from  Q,  or  whether  he  represents  an 
independent  tradition,  but  it  is  usually  agreed  that  the 
Q  version   is   the   older   and  as  a  rule  more   original. 


V  THE  BIBLE  AND  HELL  195 

Hence  we  are  justified  in  assuming  with  regard  to  the 
saying  before  us  that  the  form  of  words  in  Lk.  xii.  10 
is  likely  to  be  the  nearest  to  the  original.^ 

We  are  mainly  concerned  here  with  the  concluding 
clause  : 

Mk.  "  Hath  never  forgiveness,  but  is  guilty  of  an 
eternal  sin." 

Lk.   "It  shall  not  be  forgiven  him." 

Mt.  "  It  shall  not  be  forgiven  him,  either  in  this 
world  or  in  that  which  is  to  come." 

Granted  that  the  Lucan  form  is  the  most  original, 
the  word  "  eternal  "  was  not  used  at  all  by  Our  Lord 
in  this  context. 

As  usual,  Matthew  is  most  explicit  and  seems  t6 
combine  Mark  and  Q. 

As  to  the  meaning,  we  may  emphasise  the  implica- 
tion that  all  other  sins  are  forgivable,  conceivably 
hereafter,  if  not  here.  Blasphemy  against  the  Holy 
Ghost  alone  is  not.  It  is  not  said  that  the  soul  guilty 
of  this  sin  will  suffer  everlastingly  ;  the  words  are  con- 
sistent with  annihilation.  This  is  entirely  in  keeping 
with  the  modern  point  of  view.  If,  as  is  probable, 
blasphemy  against  the  Holy  Ghost  means  an  obstinate 
refusal  to  recognise  the  good,  this  refusal,  if  persisted 
in,  must  at  last  destroy  the  power  of  doing  so.  Such 
a  state  would  be  hopeless  ;  the  soul  could  only  cease 
to  be.2 

{b)  The  cutting  off  of  what  offends  (Mk.  ix.  43  ff., 
Mt.  v.  29,  xviii.  8  f.).  This  passage  is  not  found  in 
Luke.  Its  importance  for  our  present  purpose  lies  in 
the  epithets  "eternal"  and  "unquenchable"  applied 
to  the  fire,  and  in  the  description  of  Gehenna  as  the 
place  "  where  their  worm  dieth  not   and   their  fire  is 

'  On  the  whole  question  of  the  relation  of  Mk.  and  y,  see  Strectcr  in  Stuiiia  in 
the  Synoptic  Problems,  pp.  1 66  ff.  W.  C.  Allen  in  the  same  volunic-  (p.  -53),  .ind 
Harnack  in  the  Sayings  of  yesus,  accept  the  Lucan  form  of  the  saying  considered 
above  as  the  original.  It  is  worth  emphasising  the  fact  that  this  conclusion  is 
arrived  at  purely  on  grounds  of  literary  criticism,  and  not  from  any  desire  to  eliminate 
a  possible  reference  to  future  punishment. 

^  The  sin  unto  death  of  1  Jolin  v.  16  may  be  understood  in  the  same  way. 


196  IMMORTALITY  v 

not  quenched."  ^  It  has  already  been  argued  that  such 
language  does  not  necessarily  imply  that  the  fire  and 
worm  do  not  destroy  that  on  which  they  feed  ;  the 
present  tenses  "  state  simply  the  law  or  normal  condi- 
tion of  the  worm  and  fire.  .  .  .  The  question  of  the 
eternity  of  punishment  does  not  come  into  sight."  ^ 
The  description  of  Gehenna  is  an  almost  exact  quotation 
from  Is.  Ixvi.  25,^  and  may  well  be  an  early  or  editorial 
addition  to  an  original  saying  of  Christ.  But  whether 
the  words  were  actually  spoken  by  Him  or  not,  it  is 
most  precarious  to  build  a  doctrine  of  eternal  punish- 
ment on  an  ambiguous  quotation. 

It  may  be  added  that  the  passage  is  a  very  difficult 
one.  Assuming,  as  is  no  doubt  the  case,  that  the 
maiming  is  to  be  understood  metaphorically,  it  would 
seem  to  be  implied  that  the  self  as  a  result  of  its 
necessary  discipline  will  enter  into  life  in  some  sense 
maimed  and  with  its  natural  powers  impaired.  This 
can  hardly  be  regarded  as  the  final  state  of  the  saved 
soul,  and  if  this  be  granted  it  is  at  least  possible  that 
the  entry  into  Gehenna  is  not  the  last  word  for  the  lost 
either. 

(c)  The  sheep  and  the  goats  (Mt.  xxv.  31  fF.).  A 
glance  at  Patristic  quotations  and  general  literature 
dealing  with  eternal  punishment  will  show  that  of  all 
Gospel  passages  this  is  the  one  most  confidently  relied 
on.  The  crucial  words  are  "  Depart  from  me  ye 
cursed  into  the  '  aeonian  '  fire  which  is  prepared  for  the 
devil  and  his  angels"  (v.  41)  and  "These  shall  go  into 
'  aeonian  '  punishment,  but  the  righteous  into  '  aeonian  ' 
life"  (v.  46).  It  is  argued  (i)  that  the  mention  of 
the  devil  and  his  angels  shows  that  the  fire  is  neither 
purgatorial  nor  temporary,  unless  we  are  to  hold  that 
the  devil  will  be  either  saved  or  destroyed.  (2) 
That  since  '  aeonian '  is  used  of  the  life  of  the  blessed 

^  According  to  the  best  reading  the  phrase  occurs  in  Mk.  only  in  -v.  48.  not,  as 
in  A.V.,  in  -w.  44,  46. 

■''  Swete,  TJie  Gospel  according  to  St.  Mark,  ad  he. 
^  See  above,  p.  175. 


V  THE  BIBLE  AND  HELL  197 

as  well  as  of  the  doom  of  the  lost,  if  the  one  comes  to 
an  end  the  other  must  also.  This  is  Augustine's 
famous  argument  against  Origen.  As  to  (i),  those 
who  hold  that  the  only  end  conceivable  for  the 
irremediably  bad  is  that  they  will  cease  to  be,  will  no 
doubt  hold  the  same  of  the  devil,  if  they  think  of  him 
in  terms  of  personality.  (2)  Assuming  that  '  aeonian  ' 
is  indeterminate  in  meaning,  it  is  perfectly  true  that 
we  could  not  argue  from  the  particular  epithet  here 
applied  to  the  life  of  the  blessed  that  that  life  was  ever- 
lasting. But  in  fact  our  belief  in  this  depends  on  quite 
other  grounds  than  the  nuance  of  an  adjective,  and  we 
are  not  in  the  least  driven  to  hold  that  communion 
with  God  will  come  to  an  end  because  we  believe  that 
punishment  will  do  so. 

Apart,  however,  from  the  question  of  the  juration 
of  punishment  this  is  undoubtedly  one  of  the  strongest 
passages  about  future  punishment  itself.  It  is  there- 
fore well  to  note  (i)  that  it  is  peculiar  to  Matthew  ; 
we  have  already  seen  how  strongly  he  emphasises  this 
feature  of  eschatology.  (2)  The  whole  passage  is 
charged  with  reminiscences  of  the  Apocalyptic  books.^ 

■*  It  will  be  worth  while  stating  these  in  detail. 

The  "Son  of  Man  coming  in  His  glory,"  "sitting  on  the  throne  of  His  glory" 
as  judge,  is  practically  verbatim  from  Enoch  xlv,  3,  Ixii.  5,  etc. 

For  the  faithful  as  "sheep,"  sinners  and  Gentiles  as  other  animals,  see  Enoch  xc. 

For  the  blessed  on  "  the  right  hand  "  at  the  resurrection  see  Test,  of  Benjamin 
X.  6. 

For  the  whole  idea  see  Secrets  of  Enoch  ix.  :  "This  place,  O  Enoch,  is  pre- 
pared for  the  righteous  who  .  .  .  make  righteous  judgment,  and  give  bread  to  the 
hungering,  and  cover  the  naked  with  clothing,  and  raise  up  the  fallen,  and  help 
injured  orphans  .  .  .  for  them  is  prepared  this  place  for  eternal  inheritance."  In 
ch.  x.  another  place  of  fire,  cold,  and  other  horrors  is  prepared,  also  for  an  eternal 
inheritance,  for  t^ose  who  amongst  other  sins  oppress  the  poor,  "  who  being  able  to 
satisfy  the  empty,  made  the  hungering  to  die  j  being  able  to  clothe,  stripped  the 
naked." 

For  the  sequence  of  the  acts  of  mercy  cf.  also  Test,  of  Joseph  i.  5  fF.  : 

"I  was  taken  into  captivity  and  His  strong  hand  succoured  me. 

I  was  beset  with  hunger  and  the  Lord  himself  nourished  me. 

I  was  alone  and  God  comforted  me. 

I  was  sick  and  the  Lord  visited  me  : 

I  was  in  prison  and  my  God  showed  favour  unto  me." 

It  is  needless  to  give  special  references  for  the  "  fire  prepared  for  the  devil  "  and 
for  "aeonian  punishment,"  which  are  commonplaces  of  Apocalyptic. 

It  will  be  noted  that  it  is  the  phraseology  and  the  setting  of  the  parable  which 
seem  to  be  borrowed   from    Apocalyptic,  not   its  essential  features — the  stress  on 


198  IMMORTALITY  v 

It  is  therefore  very  probable  that,  though  the  parable 
may  in  substance  go  back  to  Our  Lord's  own  teaching, 
a  good  deal  of  the  phraseology  is  due  to  modification 
of  His  original  words  either  in  oral  tradition  or  by  the 
editor  of  the  first  Gospel. 

Summary  of  New  Testament  Teaching 

1.  The  constant  features  are  the  sharp  division  into 
two  classes  and  the  sense  of  the  importance  of  the  choice 
made  in  this  life.  But  note  that,  generally  speaking, 
only  those  are  considered  to  whom  the  opportunity  of 
choice  has  actually  been  offered  ;  the  rest  are  simply 
ignored.^ 

2.  There  is  in  fact  far  less  about  future  punishment 
than  is  usually  supposed.^  Whole  groups  of  books, 
including  the  majority  of  the  Pauline  Epistles  and  the 
Johannine  writings,  outside  the  Apocalypse,  do  little 
more  than  speak  in  general  terms  of  judgment  and 
death  as  awaiting  the  sinner. 

3.  The  language  used  about  future   punishment  is 

acts  of  omission  and  the  Judge's  identification  of  Himself  with  "  His  brethren." 
These,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  are  original,  and  the  lesson  drawn  from  them  is  quite 
independent  of  the  particular  character  of  the  penalty  inflicted  on  those  who  have 
failed  to  show  charity.  The  underlying  idea  is  found  in  Mk.  ix.  37  (cf.  -v.  41)  : 
"Whosoever  shall  receive  one  of  these  little  ones  in  my  name,  receiveth  me,"  and 
if  we  suppose  an  authentic  parable  of  Christ's  developing  this  thought,  some  of  its 
features  may  well  have  been  emphasised  later  under  the  influence  of  the  Apocalyptic 
ideas  which  are  so  prominent  in  the  first  Gospel.  The  point  is  that  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  reject  the  parable  as  a  whole  because  we  find  reason  to  suspect  certain 
phrases  in  it. 

^  The  chief  passages  which  speak  of  a  general  judgment  are  Rom.  ii.  14  ff.,  2 
Cor.  V.  10,  Rev.  xx.  12,  and  the  passages  from  Acts  quoted  above  (p.  186).  It  is  doubtful 
whether  Mt.  xxv.  31  is  really  universal;  it  is  possible  that  the  reference  is  to 
those  from  "  all  nations  "  who  have  come  into  contact  with  the  despised  and  perse- 
cuted Christians,  "  My  brethren,"  and,  without  being  converted  themselves,  have 
treated  them  kindly  j  so  in  Mk.  ix.  41  the  reward  is  for  the  cup  of  cold  water 
given  "because  ye  are  Christ's."  1  do  not,  however,  feel  quite  confident  as  to  this 
limitation  of  the  idea. 

^  N.B.  the  confusion  caused  by  the  use  in  A.V.  and  in  popular  theology  of  such 
terms  as  "hell,"  "damnation,"  "  perdition,"  etc.  A  recent  and  regrettable  example 
may  be  seen  in  Moore's  The  Brook  Kerith,  where  he  makes  Our  Lord  say,  "  Thou 
shalt  eat  my  flesh  and  drink  my  blood,  else  perish  utterly,  and  go  into  eternal  damna- 
tion "  (p.  222).  Such  words  may  be  justified  in  their  strict  etymological  meaning, 
but  they  have  come  to  have  a  connotation  which  suggests  everlasting  punishment 
and  is  in  the  highest  degree  misleading. 


V  THE  BIBLE  AND  HELL  199 

quite  clearly  of  the  same  type  as  that  found  in  the 
Apocalyptic  literature,  and  is  practically  confined  to  a 
single  group  of  books  which  is  in  other  ways  strongly 
Apocalyptic  in  tone.  We  are  therefore  fully  justified  in 
arguing  that  it  is  a  direct  reflection  of  the  current 
Apocalyptic  teaching.  Whilst  this  does  not  imply  that 
this  side  of  New  Testament  teaching  can  be  altogether 
ignored,  it  does  show  that  it  was  not  a  deliberate  crea- 
tion of  Our  Lord  and  His  followers,  but  was  simply  one 
of  the  elements  taken  over  from  contemporary  thought. 
Like  other  elements  so  taken  over,  e.g.  the  demonology 
of  the  day,  it  may  be  subject  to  very  considerable  modi- 
fications. The  belief  in  the  immediate  Parousia  and  an 
imminent  and  miraculously  manifested  end  of  the  age 
was  a  similar  heritage,  and  history  has  proved  this  to 
have  been  untrue  in  any  literal  sense. 

We  must  bear  in  mind  that  the  real  and  fundamental 
meaning  of  any  writer  is  to  be  found  in  the  ideas  which 
are  original  and  characteristic,  not  in  those  which  are 
simply  inherited  from  the  current  thought  of  his  age. 
That  which  is  specially  characteristic  and  original  in  the 
New  Testament  is  precisely  not  the  Apocalyptic  element. 

4.  We  found  in  the  earlier  literature  that  the  doc- 
trine owed  a  good  deal  to  the  sense  of  injustice  and  the 
desire  for  retribution  aroused  by  persecution  and  oppres- 
sion, as  well  as  to  the  intolerance  so  commonly  evoked 
by  religious  differences.  It  may  be  conceded  that  the 
same  motives,  though  in  a  lesser  degree,  are  at  work  in 
the  New  Testament,  especially  in  Rev.,  2  Thess.,  and 
Peter  and  Jude  ;  traces  of  them  are  also  found  in  the 
first  Gospel,  though  not  so  prominently.  At  the  same 
time  it  should  be  remembered  that,  with  the  partial 
exception  of  the  Apocalypse,  there  is  far  more  restraint 
and  far  less  gloating  over  details  than,  e.g..,  in  Enoch. 
And  we  must  never  forget  that  the  thought  throughout 
is  of  the  immediate  enemies  of  the  Gospel,  not  of  the 
mass  of  mankind,  whether  living  or  dead,  whose  fate  is 
practically  ignored. 


200  IMMORTALITY  v 

5.  On  the  question  of  the  everlasting  nature  of 
punishment,  the  Apocalyptic  books  themselves  are,  as 
we  saw,  really  vague  and  indecisive.  The  same  is  true 
of  the  New  Testament.  There  is  no  passage  which 
absolutely  requires  it  when  due  allowance  is  made  for  a 
rhetorical  use  of  quotations  from  earlier  literature  and 
the  conventional  employment  of  current  figures.  In 
some  cases  it  is  a  possible  interpretation  of  its  language, 
but  the  general  trend  of  the  New  Testament  as  a  whole 
is  definitely  in  the  direction  of  annihilation. 

6.  With  regard  to  the  teaching  of  Our  Lord  the 
evidence  is  still  less  decisive.  The  belief  that  He 
taught  everlasting  punishment  rests  mainly  on  the 
evidence  of  the  first  Gospel.  It  is  a  commonplace 
of  criticism  that  on  many  points  besides  this  much  of 
the  matter  which  is  found  only  in  this  Gospel  bears 
very  definite  traces  of  the  controversies  of  the  sub- 
Apostolic  age.  The  moment  we  abandon  the  position 
that  every  saying  attributed  to  Christ  in  the  Gospels 
must  be  regarded  as  a  literal  and  infallible  report  of 
His  words,  we  have  no  choice  but  to  apply  critical 
principles.^  The  general  objections  to  the  authenticity 
of  the  language  about  punishment  attributed  to  Him  ^ 
are  that  it  is  very  often  weakly  attested,  that  the  form 
in  which  it  is  recorded  varies  considerably,  that  it  is 
definitely  traceable  to  contemporary  Apocalyptic  ideas, 
and  that,  as  many  will  hold,  it  is  out  of  keeping  with 
the  general  tone  of  His  character  and  teaching.  More 
will  be  said  on  this  point  later,  but  admitting  for  the 

^  On  this  question  I  would  beg  leave  to  refer  to  my  article  on  "  The  Teaching  of 
the  Historic  Christ"  {Nineteenth  Century,  January  1914). 

^  For  a  recent  and  very  careful  discussion  of  this  see  Rashdall,  Conscience  and 
Christ,  pp.  294  flF.  To  those  who  regard  all  such  criticism  as  "subjective"  it  may 
be  said  that  the  moment  we  question  the  literal  accuracy  of  any  document  or  report, 
sacred  or  secular,  we  are  thrown  back  upon  probabilities  which  will  to  some  extent 
be  variously  estimated  by  different  minds.  In  this  sense  all  such  criticism  is  "sub- 
jective," as  is  all  reasoning  which  falls  short  of  mathematical  proof.  But  subjective 
need  not  be  the  same  as  arbitrary,  and  there  are  quite  cogent  and  definite  principles 
of  historical  criticism  which  we  all  use  in  everyday  life,  e.g.  we  apply  them  to  the 
various  war  reports  which  reach  us,  rejecting  some  and  accepting  others,  perhaps 
with  modifications  j  and  we  do  so  on  precisely  the  same  kind  of  principles  as  those 
which  critics  use  with  regard  to  the  Bible. 


V  THE  BIBLE  AND  HELL  201 

moment  the  truth  of  this  objection,  it  is  obviously  sound 
criticism  to  regard  with  some  suspicion,  and  to  refuse  to 
build  a  far-reaching  conclusion  upon,  a  definite  and  not 
very  large  class  of  discordant  and  exceptional  sayings, 
the  origin  of  which  can  readily  be  otherwise  explained. 
Those  who  hold  the  doctrine  of  hell  have  based  it 
almost  entirely  on  "revelation,"  i.e.  on  the  recorded 
teaching  of  Christ  and  His  followers  ;  in  many  cases 
they  would  gladly  abandon  it,  were  it  not  that  they 
felt  compelled  to  hold  it  on  these  grounds.  If  then 
this  supposed  basis  can  be  shown  to  be  at  best  very 
doubtful,  the  main  argument  in  favour  of  the  doctrine 
disappears  at  once. 

7.  There  are  in  the  Pauline  Epistles  very  definite 
hints  of  a  certain  type  of  Universalism.  Christ  is  to 
be  all  in  all  ;  it  is  the  purpose  of  God  to  sum  up  all 
things  in  Him  ;  through  Him  to  reconcile  all  things  to 
Himself  (Eph.  i.  10,  Col.  i.  16,  20,  iii.  11)  ;  He  has 
shut  up  all  unto  disobedience  that  He  might  have  mercy 
upon  all  (Rom.  xi.  31  ;  see  also  i  Cor.  xv.  27  ff.).  It 
is  not  clear  whether  in  such  passages  St.  Paul  actually 
contemplated  the  salvation  of  individuals  already  dead 
or  of  the  spiritual  powers  of  evil.  He  seems  to  be 
thinking  rather  of  the  cosmos  as  a  whole  and  of  all  classes 
and  types  of  created  beings  within  it.  Rom.  xi.  refers 
to  the  Jewish  nation  as  an  entity  and  to  those  who 
chance  to  be  alive  at  the  consummation,  rather  than  to 
those  members  of  the  race  who  had  already  refused  the 
Gospel.^  But  whatever  the  primary  meaning  of  such 
language,  the  principles  which  underlie  it,  when  thought 
out,  cannot  allow  us  to  ignore  the  fate  of  previous 
generations,  and  they  are  certainly  not  consistent  with 
the  existence  of  a  class  of  rebellious  souls  suffering  un- 
ending torments.     It  is,  however,  very  difficult  to  find 

^  Rev.  xxi.  24  ft'.,  xxii.  2,  refer  to  a  great  conversion  of  the  Gentiles  during  the 
Millennial  Kingdom  (see  the  convincing  reconstruction  of  these  chapters  by  Dr. 
Charles  in  the  Expoiitory  Times,  xxvi.  pp.  54,  119).  But  (l)  only  those  are  included 
who  chance  to  be  alive  at  the  time  ;  (2)  the  passage  is  not  universalistic  since 
sinners  remain  without  the  city. 


202  IMMORTALITY  v 

in  the  New  Testament  any  real  indications  of  further 
opportunities  after  this  life,  and  this  applies  just  as 
strongly  to  the  heathen  who  have  never  heard  the 
message  as  to  those  who  have  heard  and  refused.  If 
we  do  believe  in  repentance  after  death,  we  must  frankly 
base  our  belief  on  something  other  than  isolated  texts. ^ 


The  Hardening  of  the  Doctrine  in   later 
Thought  and  the  Revolt  against  it 

The  doctrine  of  everlasting  punishment  does  not 
figure  either  in  any  creed  ^  or  in  the  pronouncements 
of  the  first  four  General  Councils.^  Though  it  was 
vigorously  debated  at  the  time,  the  Church  remained 
silent  on  the  subject.  Dr.  Gore*  admits  that  even 
Universalism,  which  he  himself  rejects,  "  has  never  been 
formally  condemned  by  the  Church  with  any  ecumenical 
judgment."  At  the  same  time  it  is  only  too  obvious 
that  the  belief  in  hell  soon  became  dominant  both  in 
popular  and  in  official  theology.  If  our  contention  is 
correct  that  this  is  a  misinterpretation  of  the  real  teach- 

^  The  Lazarus  parable  does  contain  such  a  hint,  and  the  obscure  passage  in  i 
Peter  iii.  19  fF.  certainly  implies  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  to  the  dead.  It  is,  how- 
ever, confined  to  those  who  died  before  the  Flood.  The  supposed  traces  of  a  similar 
idea  in  Enoch  are  very  doubtful  ;  we  may  see  in  i  Peter  rather  the  influence  of  the 
pagan  myth  of  the  conquest  of  the  powers  of  the  underworld  by  an  unrecognised 
divine  hero  (Bousset,  Kjirios  Christos,  pp.  32  f.).  In  any  case,  we  cannot  use  an 
isolated  passage  such  as  this  to  explain  other  writers.  St.  Paul,  the  universalist, 
gives  no  hint  of  a  similar  belief  ;  Eph.  iv.  9  has  no  mention  of  preaching.  The 
"harrowing  of  hell"  plays  a  large  part  in  later  Christian  thought,  but  the  point  is 
mainly  the  rescue  of  the  good  men  of  old,  not  the  offering  of  another  chance  to 
sinners.  In  Ignatius,  Magn.  ix.  3,  it  is  the  prophets  who  are  rescued.  In  Hermas, 
Sim.  ix.  16,  5,  the  Apostles  descend  to  baptize  "those  who  have  fallen  asleep  in 
righteousness."  The  descensus  becomes  an  answer,  as  in  Dante,  to  the  problem  of 
how  the  good  men  of  old  can  be  saved  if  baptism  and  faith  in  Christ  are  necessary 
to  salvation  ;  from  this  point  of  view  it  has  no  bearing  on  universalism. 

2  The  English  version  of  the  Hymn  of  Athanasius  has  "everlasting,"  "ever- 
lastingly," but  these  can  scarcely  be  defended  as  renderings  of  the  original  Latin 
word  "  aeternus."  The  Creed  is  intended  to  represent  the  New  Testament 
language ;  therefore  "  whatever  Our  Lord's  words  mean,  the  Creed  means  the 
same." — Gibson,  The  Thirty- Nine  Articles,  p.  352. 

*  On  the  vexed  question  whether  and  how  far  Origen  and  his  doctrines  were  ever 
formally  condemned,  see  Pusey,  What  is  of  Faith  as  to  E-ver lasting  Punishment,  p.  137  ; 
and  Bigg,  Christian  Platonists  of  Alexandria,  ch.  viii.,  esp.  pp.  323  ff". 

■*   The  Religion  of  the  Church,  p.  91. 


V  THE  BIBLE  AND  HELL  203 

ing  of  the  New  Testament,  how  are  we  to  account  for 
its  early  rise  and  general  acceptance  ? 

There  would  seem  to  have  been  four  main  in- 
fluences at  work.  ( i )  When  Christianity  passed  from 
its  original  Jewish  surroundings  to  the  Graeco-Roman 
world  the  key  was  lost  to  the  right  interpretation  of 
the  language  in  which  many  of  its  doctrines  were 
clothed.  The  Latin  mind  in  particular  tended  to  force 
the  Eastern  metaphors  and  picturesque  language  of  the 
New  Testament  into  a  literalistic  and  legal  mould. 
This  especially  affected  the  understanding  of  the 
eschatological  system  of  thought,  out  of  which,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  belief  in  future  punishment  developed. 

(2)  It  was  not  realised  that  the  New  Testament, 
like  other  documents,  must  be  interpreted  in  the  light 
of  contemporary  ideas  and  with  a  due  regard  to  the 
history  which  lay  behind  its  doctrines.  The  belief  in 
inspiration  led  to  a  mechanical  system  of  interpretation 
which,  whether  literal  or  allegorical,  based  itself  on  the 
letter,  and  treated  all  books  and  texts  as  equally  im- 
portant. This  method  already  existed  as  applied  to  the 
Old  Testament,  and  it  was  transferred  bodily  to  the 
New.  In  particular  it  was  taken  for  granted  that  all 
the  books  represented  a  single  homogeneous  theology, 
accepted  by  all  its  writers  alike.  Apparent  divergences 
must  be  explained  away,  and  in  particular  silence  must 
be  understood  as  consent.  Accordingly  those  books 
which  really  say  little  or  nothing  as  to  everlasting 
punishment,  instead  of  being  counted  as  witnesses 
against  it,  were  simply  assumed  to  be  in  agreement 
with  the  doctrine,  though,  as  we  have  seen,  it  is  in 
fact  almost  exclusively  confined  to  contexts  where  the 
Jewish  eschatological  influence  is  dominant. 

(3)  The  influences  which  we  have  found  at  work  in 
Apocalyptic  literature  and  the  New  Testament  operate 
with  increasing  force  in  the  history  of  the  Church. 
The  growth  of  the  belief  in  hell  was  largely  due  to 
a    very    intelligible     indignation     at     the     cruelty    of 


204  IMMORTALITY  v 

persecutors  and  a  desire  to  stem  heresy.  TertuUian's^ 
outburst  of  mocking  and  exultant  joy  at  the  coming 
sight  of  kings,  persecutors,  philosophers,  and  poets 
writhing  in  the  flames  is  well  known,  and  Pusey  ^  quotes 
a  long  catena  of  passages  from  the  Acts  of  the  Martyrs 
and  similar  literature,  insisting  on  the  belief  in  ever- 
lasting punishment. 

(4)  Added  to  this,  there  was  on  the  philosophical 
side  the  growing  belief,  inherited  from  Plato,  in  the 
natural  immortality  of  the  soul.  This  led  to  the 
ignoring  of  the  prima  facie  meaning  of  the  Biblical 
passages  which  speak  of  annihilation.^  If  the  soul 
is  essentially  immortal  and  indissoluble  and  the  possi- 
bility of  repentance  after  death  is  not  contemplated,  the 
sinner  can  only  suffer  unendingly. 

At  the  same  time  there  have  always  been  isolated 
voices  raised  in  support  of  other  views.  There  are 
hints  of  a  belief  in  repentance  after  death,  as  well  as  in 
conditional  immortality  and  annihilation.*  The  out- 
standing figure  in  this  respect  is  of  course  Origen  ; 
reference  may  be  made  to  the  full  account  of  his  views 
in  Bigg's  Christian  Platonists  of  Alexandria.  The 
salient  points  are  these.  He  held  that  all  punishment 
is  remedial ;  future  suffering  is  not  a  penalty,  but  a 
wholesome  reaction  by  which  the  soul  casts  out  poison  ; 
the  "  fire  "  is  spiritual  and  inward.  "  The  sin  which  is 
not  forgiven  in  this  aeon,  or  the  aeon  to  come,  might 
yet  be  blotted  out  in  some  one  of  the  aeons  beyond."  ^ 
At  the  same  time  he  apparently  believed  in  a  final  poena 
damni  or  exclusion  from  the  sight  of  God.  "  The  soul 
which    has    sinned    beyond  a  certain    point  can    never 

1  De  Sped.  30. 

^  What  is  of  Faith  as  to  Everlasting  Punishment,  pp.  155-172. 

•*  The  Jewish  conception  of  the  temporary  Messianic  age  had  ceased  to  be 
familiar,  particularly  as  Millenarianism  (the  reign  of  Christ  for  1000  years) 
passed  into  disrepute.  It  will  be  remembered  that  in  the  Apocalyptic  books  the 
final  destruction  of  sinners  is  often  placed  at  the  close  of  this  period. 

*  For  references  see  Enc.  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  s.v.  "  Annihilation  "  ;  "  Conditional 
Immortality";  "  Eschatology  "  (v.  p.  388). 

6  Bigg,  p.  277. 


V  THE  BIBLE  AND  HELL  205 

again  become  what  it  once  might  have  been.  The 
'  wise  fire '  will  consume  its  evil  fuel  ;  anguish, 
remorse,  shame,  distraction,  all  torment  will  end  when 
*  the  wood,  the  hay,  the  straw '  are  burnt  up.  The 
purified  spirit  will  be  brought  home,  it  will  no  longer 
rebel ;  it  will  acquiesce  in  its  lot  ;  but  it  may  never  be 
admitted  within  that  holy  circle  where  the  pure  in  heart 
see  face  to  face."  ^  At  the  same  time,  in  view  of  what 
he  considered  the  teaching  of  Scripture,  he  is  sometimes 
uncertain  as  to  the  final  fate  of  those  rejected  on  earth. 
"  Who  is  that  guest  who  ...  is  cast  into  outer  dark- 
ness ?  You  will  ask  whether  he  remains  bound  in  the 
outer  darkness  for  ever  i' — for  the  words  '  for  this  aeon  ' 
or  *  for  the  aeons  '  are  not  added — or  whether  he  will 
in  the  end  be  loosed  ?  for  it  does  not  appear  that  any- 
thing is  written  about  his  future  release.  It  does  not 
seem  to  me  to  be  safe,  seeing  I  have  no  full  understand- 
ing, to  pronounce  an  opinion,  especially  in  a  case  where 
Scripture  is  silent." "  In  the  same  way  it  is  not  clear 
whether  he  really  believed  "  that  the  devil  will  be  saved," 
though  some  of  his  followers  seem  to  have  done  so. 

Origen's  views  were  strenuously  combated  by 
Augustine,  whose  influence  prevailed  on  this,  as  on 
other  subjects.  In  fact,  to  the  four  reasons  already 
given  for  the  wide  spread  of  the  doctrine  of  hell,  the 
almost  unquestioned  supremacy  of  his  authority,  at 
least  in  the  west,  may  be  added  as  a  fifth. 

From  his  time,  and  through  the  period  covered  by 
the  Middle  Ages,  there  is  little  in  the  development 
of  eschatological  theories  which  need  detain  us  here.^ 
The  doctrine  of  Purgatory  with  its  corollaries  came  to 
occupy  a  central  place.  But  this  was  always  a  prepara- 
tion for  heaven,  not  a  mitigation  of  hell.  No  doubt  it 
provided   a   temporary  half-way   house   for  those  who 

'   Bigg,  p.  343. 

"  Origen,  In  'Joan,  xxviii.  7,  quoted  by  Bigg,  p.  278. 

^  For  John  Scotus  Erigcna  and  "  Dionysius  the  Areopagite,"  who  were  in 
sonic  sense  Universalists,  see  H.  B.  Workman,  Chr'nt'ian  Thought  to  the  Reformation, 
pp.  150  ff.,  and  literature  there  quoted. 


2o6  IMMORTALITY  v 

were  neither  good  enough  for  the  one  nor  bad  enough 
for  the  other.  But  it  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  it 
practically  ousted  hell.  Dante  and  mediaeval  art  and 
literature  in  general  show  that  hell  remained  a  serious 
possibility,  not  merely  for  those  outside  the  Church  but 
even  for  Popes,  Bishops,  and  the  highest  ecclesiastical 
dignitaries.  The  practical  authority  of  the  Church, 
exercised  in  the  last  resort  by  excommunication,  rested 
largely  on  the  belief,  or  at  least  the  fear,  that  its  con- 
demnation did  in  fact  carry  with  it  the  certainty  of 
everlasting  punishment.  This  was  the  secret  of  its 
power  over  heretics  and  secular  princes.  Gregory's 
excommunication  of  Henry  IV.  and  the  Emperor's 
humiliation  at  Canossa  are  the  outstanding  proof  of 
the  seriousness  with  which  the  power  of  the  keys  was 
regarded,  a  seriousness  bound  up  with  the  belief  in  the 
reality  of  the  torments  of  an  unending  hell.  "  His 
[Gregory's]  premises  once  admitted — and  no  one  dreamt 
of  denying  them — the  reasonings  by  which  he  established 
the  superiority  of  spiritual  to  temporal  jurisdiction  were 
unassailable.  With  his  authority,  in  whose  hands  are 
the  keys  of  heaven  and  hell,  whose  word  can  bestow 
eternal  bliss  or  plunge  in  everlasting  misery,  no  other 
earthly  authority  can  compete  or  interfere  :  if  his 
power  extends  over  the  infinite,  how  much  more  must 
he  be  supreme  over  the  finite."  ^  At  the  same  time 
the  fact  that  such  anathemas  were  sometimes  disregarded 
combines  with  the  extraordinary  flippancy  with  which, 
then  as  now,  hell  was  often  treated  in  art  and  literature 
to  suggest  the  existence  of  an  undercurrent  of  scepticism. 
The  prevalent  attitude  was  no  doubt  very  much  that  of 
"  Pascal's  wager "  :  the  Church's  view  of  the  future 
might  not  be  true  ;  on  the  other  hand  it  might.  And 
with  so  much  to  gain  and  lose  if  it  did  turn  out  to  be 
true,  it  was  better  to  be  on  the  safe  side  and  stake 
what  you  conveniently  could  upon  it. 

The  Reformation,  where  it  swept  away  the  doctrine 

^   Bryce,  Holy  Roman  Empire,  p.  16 1. 


V  THE  BIBLE  AND  HELL  207 

of  Purgatory,  left  heaven  and  hell  in  still  sharper  op- 
position. Everlasting  punishment  remained  the  official 
teaching  of  the  Reformed  churches.  Opposition  came 
mainly  not  from  theologians  but  from  philosophers, 
such  as  Spinoza,  Hobbes,  Locke,  and  Mill.  Isolated 
protests  were  however  heard  from  time  to  time  from 
within  the  Church.^  It  would  take  too  long,  and  would 
not  really  be  much  to  our  purpose,  to  attempt  to  discuss 
these  here.  We  can  only  add  a  few  words  on  the 
modern  history  of  the  controversy  within  the  Church 
of  England. 

Here  an  important  stage  was  marked  by  the  publica- 
tion in  1 860  of  Essays  and  Reviews.  Mr.  Wilson  closed 
his  essay  on  "The  National  Church"  with  a  very  cautious 
and  moderate  expression  of  his  belief  in  Universalism. 
This  formed  one  of  the  counts  in  the  "  Essays  and 
Reviews "  trial.  After  the  Ecclesiastical  Court  had 
condemned  the  writers,  the  judgment  was  reversed  by 
the  Judicial  Committee  of  the  Privy  Council,  the  part 
of  the  Judgment  with  which  we  are  concerned  running 
as  follows  : — 

*'  We  are  not  required,  or  at  liberty,  to  express 
any  opinion  upon  the  mysterious  question  of  the 
eternity  of  future  punishment,  further  than  to  say 
that  we  do  not  find  in  the  formularies  to  which  this 
article  refers  any  such  distinct  declaration  of  our 
church  upon  the  subject  as  to  require  us  to  condemn 
as  penal  the  expression  of  a  hope  by  a  clergyman 
that  even  the  ultimate  pardon  of  the  wicked  who  are 
condemned  in  the  Day  of  Judgment  may  be  consistent 
with  the  will  of  Almighty  God." 

The  ecclesiastical  opinion  of  the  day  still  took 
another  view,  and  a  Declaration  signed  by  11,000 
clergy  expressed  the  belief  that  the  Church  of  England 
teaches  in  the  words  of  our  blessed  Lord  that  the 
punishment  of  the  "  cursed  "   equally   with  the  "  life  " 

1  Sec  Farrar,  Eternal  Hope,  Appcmlix  :   "  Brief  Sketch  of  Eschatological  Opinions 
in  the  Church." 


2o8  IMMORTALITY  v 

of  the  "  righteous  "  is  "  everlasting."  Similarly  Dr. 
Pusey  writes  :  *'  If  the  highest  Court  of  Appeal  allows 
our  clergy  to  take  the  word  everlasting  in  a  sense 
contrary  to  its  known  English  meaning  ,  .  ,  how 
can  our  people  believe  that  we  mean  anything  that 
we  say  ?  " 

A  few  years  previously  (in  1853)  a  similar  spirit  had 
been  shown  when  Maurice  was  deprived  of  his  Chair  at 
King's  College  on  account  of  a  very  tentative  rejection 
of  the  current  doctrine  of  hell  and  the  expression  of 
a  hope  that  some  sinners  might  have  an  opportunity 
of  repentance  after  death.^  Many  will  remember  the 
storm  raised  by  the  publication  of  Farrar's  Eternal 
Hope^  which  was  on  much  the  same  lines.  It  is  worth 
while  recalling  these  controversies  as  some  indication 
of  the  change  which  has  come  over  the  theological 
world  in  recent  years  with  regard  to  this  doctrine. 
It  is  probably  safe  to  say  that  except  in  a  few  restricted 
circles  a  living  belief  in  hell  has  practically  vanished 
to-day  in  the  Church  of  England.  It  is  no  doubt  still 
held  conventionally  by  many,  but  it  is  not  seriously 
preached  or  taught  in  spite  of  the  efforts  made  from 
time  to  time  in  the  correspondence  columns  of  the 
religious  press  to  galvanise  it  into  life.  And  now  the 
semi-official  theology  of  the  Church  is  falling  into  line 
with  what  has  long  been  the  instinctive  attitude  of  lay 
opinion.  The  present  Bishop  of  Oxford  in  a  Manual 
of  Membership,  "  intended  as  a  summary  statement 
of  the  religion  of  the  catholic  church,"  while  rejecting 
"  Universalism,"  abandons  the  strict  doctrine  of  hell. 
"  I  do  not  think  ...  we  are  absolutely  shut  up 
into  the  almost  intolerable  belief  in  unending  conscious 
torment  for  the  lost.  .  .  .  Final  moral  ruin  may  involve, 
I  cannot  but  think,  such  a  dissolution  of  personality  as 
carries  with  it  the  cessation  of  personal  consciousness. 
In  this  way  the  final  ruin  of  irretrievably  lost  spirits, 
awful  as  it  is  to  contemplate,  may  be  found  consistent 

■•  Tennyson's  poem  "To  the  Rev.  F.  D.  Maurice"  refers  to  this. 


V  THE  BIBLE  AND  HELL  209 

with  St.  Paul's  anticipation  of  a  universe  in  which  ulti- 
mately God  is  to  be  all  in  all — which  does  not  seem 
to  be  really  compatible  with  the  existence  of  a  region 
of  everlastingly  tormented  and  rebellious  spirits."  ^ 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  impression  that  a 
belief  in  everlasting  punishment  is  an  essential  element 
in  the  official  theology  of  the  Church  has  long  been, 
and  still  is,  one  of  the  greatest  stumbling-blocks  in 
the  minds  of  serious  men.  If  it  does  not  lead  to  the 
rejection  of  Christianity  itself,  it  prevents  them 
associating  themselves  with  any  of  the  churches.  It 
is  well,  therefore,  to  emphasise  the  fact  that  according 
to  the  strictest  interpretation  of  her  formularies 
considerable  latitude  is  now  allowed  to  her  members, 
at  any  rate  within  the  Church  of  England. 

The  Spirit  and  the  Letter  of  the  New 
Testament  Teaching 

The  modern  mind,  then,  with  some  unanimity  rejects, 
either  explicitly  or  implicitly,  the  doctrine  of  hell.  While 
it  may  not  always  believe  in  the  ultimate  salvation  of  all 
men,  it  does  hold  that  the  majority  of  souls  will  be  purified 
by  discipline  after  death  and  will  gradually  attain,  if 
not  to  the  fulness  of  the  beatific  vision,  at  least  to  some 
measure  of  a  profitable  and  happy  state  of  being.  We 
must  now  consider  how  far  this  is  really  compatible 
with  what  we  have  seen  to  be  the  teaching  of  the 
New  Testament.  Let  us  remind  ourselves  once  more 
that  the  belief  in  hell  depends  upon  the  words  of  the 
Bible  to  an  extent  which  is  probably  true  of  no  other 
doctrine.  We  have  already  seen  reason  to  hold  that 
its  teaching  is  at  best  ambiguous  and  not  always 
consistent  with  itself,  and  this  fact  alone  should  be 
fatal  to  the  doctrine  as  a  necessary  matter  of  faith. 
But  though  the  New  Testament  is  not  decisive  as  to 
everlasting   punishment,   the   difficulty   is  that   it   does 

'   Gore,  The  Religion  of  the  Church,  pp.  92  f. 

P 


2IO  IMMORTALITY  v 

definitely  contemplate  the  existence  of  two  clearly 
defined  classes — the  sheep  and  the  goats,  the  saved 
and  the  lost — and  it  does  not  explicitly  suggest  any 
possibility  of  improvement  hereafter  for  those  on 
the  wrong  side  of  the  line,  whether  they  are  there 
because  they  have  been  deliberately  rebellious  or  are 
only  unconverted  through  no  fault  of  their  own.  Now 
there  is  no  getting  away  from  the  fact  that  those  on 
the  wrong  side  of  the  line  constitute  a  large  proportion 
of  those  whom  on  a  prima  facie  view  the  language  of 
the  New  Testament  contemplates.  Few  enter  in  at 
the  strait  gate  ^  ;  the  foolish  virgins  are  half  the  number. 
It  is  clear  that  the  "tares"  and  the  "goats"  stand  for 
a  class,  which,  though  indefinite,  is  quite  considerable. 
Whether  in  the  Pauline  Epistles,  or  in  the  fourth 
Gospel,  it  is  perfectly  obvious  that  those  who  are  not 
saved  by  faith  in  Christ  are  by  no  means  a  negligible 
fraction.  It  has  been  a  commonplace  that  the  leaven 
of  true  Christians  must  always  be  small. 

Attempts  are  often  made  to  remove  the  difficulty 
by  arguing  that  we  are  never  told  of  the  damnation 
of  any  specified  individual,  that  God  alone  is  judge, 
and  that  there  is  always  the  possibility  that  the  soul 
may  have  accepted  Christ  at  the  moment  of  death. 
Pusey  ^  goes  through  the  list  of  notorious  sinners  of 
the  Bible — Ahab,  Absalom,  Solomon,  Nebuchadnezzar, 
Antiochus  Epiphanes — and  argues  with  regard  to  each 
one  that  he  may  have  repented  at  the  last.  Now  we  are 
quite  sure  that  the  writers  of  the  Jewish  Apocalypses, 
or  of  4  Maccabees,  had  not  the  least  intention  of 
excluding  an  Antiochus  ^  from  the  fire  they  describe, 

^  See  Lk.  xiii.  23  ff.  (Mt.  vii.  13).  In  answer  to  the  question,  "Are  there  few 
that  be  saved?"  (cf.  2  EsHras  vii.,  viii.)  Our  Lord  refuses  to  define  the  proportion, 
but  He  does  say  that  "  many  "  shall  fail  to  enter  the  Kingdom,  and  the  following 
verses  emphasise  the  same  fact. 

"   What  is  of  Faith  as  to  E-uerlasting  Punishment,  pp.  12  ff. 

^  It  is  true  that  in  i  Mac.  vi.,  2  Mac.  ix.  Antiochus  is  represented  as  filled  with 
remorse  at  his  oppression  of  the  Jews,  and  as  recognising  in  his  illness  the  hand  of 
divme  vengeance.  Such  a  touch  has  an  obvious  dramatic  fitness,  but  neither  in 
2  nor  in  4  Maccabees  is  it  suggested  that  he  will  thus  escape  his  future  doom. 
Punishment  after  death  is  not  referred  to  in  i  Maccabees. 


V  THE  BIBLE  AND  HELL  211 

nor  had  the  author  of  Revelation  any  idea  of  placing 
Nero  and  his  satellites  in  the  work  of  persecution 
among  the  redeemed  arrayed  in  white  robes.  And  the 
argument  is  really  a  good  example  of  a  well-known 
fallacy.  It  holds  good  "  distributively "  but  not 
"  collectively."  It  may  apply  to  any  given  individual, 
but  it  cannot  be  extended  to  the  whole  class.  If  it 
really  means  that  the  great  majority  of  such  sinners 
repent  "  between  the  stirrup  and  the  ground,"  it  waters 
down  the  idea  of  hell  quite  as  effectually  as  any  theory  of 
future  opportunity.  But  it  is  even  less  ethical,  and  it  is 
untrue  to  observed  experience.  As  a  warning  against 
any  presumptuous  attempt  to  anticipate  the  judgment 
of  God  by  passing  sentence  on  any  one  individual  it  is 
of  course  valuable,  but  it  does  not  ease  the  problem 
of  what  must  be,  on  the  ordinary  view,  the  large 
number  of  the  lost.  All  attempts  to  retain  a  theoretical 
hell,  while  suggesting  that  probably  no  one  goes  there, 
are  in  fact  diametrically  opposed  to  the  teaching  of 
the  New  Testament.  The  one  point  on  which  this 
is  quite  clear  is  that  only  a  fraction  are  fitted  for 
and  receive  the  Kingdom.  The  question  is  whether 
those  who  do  not  are  really  condemned  to  hell.  If 
they  are,  hell  is  by  no  means  empty,  whatever  be  our 
doubts  as  to  the  fate  of  any  particular  person. 

Again  the  issue  is  often  confused  by  language  used 
about  what  is  technically  known  as  the  poena  damni^ 
which  figures  as  we  saw  in  Origen's  theory.  It  is  argued 
that  the  soul  of  the  sinner  is  worse  off  throughout 
eternity  as  the  result  of  his  sin,  that  his  God-given 
faculties  have  not  been  so  fully  developed  as  they  might 
have  been.  At  the  same  time  it  enjoys  something  which 
might  be  called  life  ;  it  is  not  an  aimless  existence  of 
suffering,  but  one  of  growth,  activity,  and  hope,  how- 
ever much  it  falls  short  of  the  full  vision  of  God  which 
under  other  circumstances  it  might  have  attained 
This  is  in  fact  very  much  the  view  which  will  be  advo- 
cated in  this  paper,  but  the  point  at  the  moment  is  that 


212  IMMORTALITY  v 

it  does  not,  as  is  often  maintained,  agree  with  the 
teaching  of  the  New  Testament,  understood  in  anything 
Hke  its  literal  sense.  It  certainly  does  not  agree  with 
it  interpreted  in  terms  of  everlasting  punishment,  nor  is 
it  equivalent  to  the  doctrine  of  annihilation  which,  as  we 
saw,  is  sometimes  the  most  reasonable  deduction  from 
its  language.  Fire,  darkness,  exclusion,  and  death  are 
not  the  figures  of  a  life  good  so  far  as  it  goes,  though 
truncated  of  much  which  might  have  been. 

It  is  best  in  fact  to  admit  quite  frankly  that  any 
view  of  the  future  destiny  of  those  "  on  the  wrong  side 
of  the  line  "  which  is  to  be  tolerable  to  us  to-day  must 
go  beyond  the  explicit  teaching  of  the  New  Testament. 
It  has  come  to  be  recognised  that  this  is  the  case  with 
other  questions.  Our  views  of  slavery,  the  position  of 
women,  the  social  order,  the  claims  of  art  and  beauty, 
are  not  limited  by  what  the  New  Testament  writers 
actually  say  on  these  subjects.  We  claim  the  right  in 
all  such  cases  to  develop  the  essential  principles  of 
Christianity.  It  will  be  a  great  gain  when  the  same  atti- 
tude is  adopted  quite  explicitly  with  regard  to  the  future 
of  sinners.  We  have  indeed  seen  reason  to  believe 
that  the  New  Testament  teaching  is  not  in  fact  so  ex- 
treme as  is  usually  supposed,  that  it  is  ambiguous  and 
not  always  consistent  with  itself.  But  it  does  not  really 
give  us  all  that  we  want,  and  it  only  leads  to  insincerity  if 
we  try  to  satisfy  ourselves  by  artificial  explanations  of  its 
language.  And  we  are  in  the  end  on  surer  ground  when 
as  Christians  we  claim  the  right  to  go  beyond  the  letter, 
since  we  do  so  under  the  irresistible  leading  of  the  moral 
principles  of  the  New  Testament  and  of  Christ  Himself. 

It  has  lately  been  remarked  with  reference  to  social 
problems  that  we  often  "  underrate  the  ethical  driving 
force  of  the  revolutionary  ideas."  ^  This  certainly  holds 
good  of  the  question  we  are  now  considering.  The 
impossibility  of  believing  that  all  who  are  not  saved  in 
this  life  are  in  any  sense  lost  for  ever  arises  not  from 

^  Report  of  the  Archbishops'  Committee  on  Church  and  State,  p.  257. 


V  THE  BIBLE  AND  HELL  213 

philosophical  or  critical  assumptions,  but  from  definitely 
moral  principles.  We  saw  that  the  belief  in  future 
punishment  itself  owed  much  to  the  ethical  motive 
which  demanded  due  vengeance  on  the  persecutor  and 
the  oppressor.  It  was  based  on  the  sense  of  justice  and  the 
desire  that  there  should  be  a  compensation  in  the  next 
world  for  the  wrongs  of  this.  At  the  time  this  marked 
a  real  ethical  advance,  and  it  contains  elements  for  which 
we  must  find  room  in  any  final  solution.  But  it  is  not 
the  highest  stage,  and  it  is  the  teaching  and  the  Spirit  of 
Christ  Himself  which  enable  us  now  to  rise  to  some- 
thing higher.  It  is  our  belief  in  the  Fatherhood  and 
love  of  God  as  revealed  in  Christ  which  makes  the  idea 
of  unending  torment  strictly  intolerable.^  If  a  dog 
acquired  irremediably  vicious  habits,  making  him  a 
nuisance  and  a  danger,  what  should  we  say  to  a  master 
who,  instead  of  shooting  him  at  once,  chained  him  up 
to  starve  and  torture  him  until  he  had  "  expiated  "  the 
mischief  he  had  done  .''  If  it  be  urged  that  in  the  case 
of  a  responsible  personality  "justice"  requires  that  sin 
should  be  followed  by  a  certain  amount  of  "  retributive 
suffering,"  apart  from  its  effect  on  the  character  of  the 

^  This  can  hardly  be  put  better  than  it  is  in  the  Life  of  that  strange  saint  of 
God,  John  Smith  of  Harrow.  "  One  of  the  elder  boys  once  opened  his  heart  to 
John  Smith  upon  the  subject  of  future  punishment.  .  .  .  'What  proof,'  I  said, 
'  have  you  that  all  will  be  eventually  restored  ? '  I  shall  never  forget  the  way  in 
which  he  stopped,  put  his  hand  on  my  shoulder,  and  looking  up  to  heaven,  said  in 
his  expressive  voice,  '  Our  Father '  "  {Life,  p.  54). 

One  result  of  the  dropping  of  any  general  preaching  of  the  doctrine  of  hell  has 
been  that  those  who  continue  to  use  the  conventional  language  have  forgotten  what 
it  really  implies.  We  should  do  well  to  exercise  our  imagination  by  trying  to  think 
what  everlasting  punishment  means.  We  may  look  at  some  of  the  quotations  given 
in  Farrar's  Eternal  Hope  (especially  pp.  xxvi,  26  f.),  or  better  still,  read  for  ourselves  the 
Works  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  and  see  it  all  in  the  full  horror  of  its  context.  The 
writer  will  never  forget  the  impression  made  upon  him  years  ago  when,  on  taking 
down  one  of  these  from  the  shelves  of  a  library  and  opening  it  almost  at  random,  he 
lighted  on  the  following:  "The  sight  of  hell  torments  will  exalt  the  happiness  of 
the  Saints  for  ever  ;  it  will  give  them  a  more  lively  relish  "  [fVorks,  vol.  vii.  p.  521). 
If  eternal  punishment  is  really  consistent  both  with  the  justice  and  the  love  of  God 
and  a  completely  good  universe,  it  docs  follow  that  the  righteous  must  approve  of  it 
and  even  rejoice  in  it. 

It  is  a  minor  point  whether  we  think  of  it  in  terms  of  material  and  bodily  suffer- 
ings, or  of  mental  and  spiritual  pangs.  Those  who  reject  the  former  usually  go  on 
to  insist  that  the  latter  are  the  more  terrible.  Of  course  if  we  regard  these  as 
remedial  and  as  leading  to  repentance  and  progress,  they  are  on  a  different  plane,  but 
then  this  is  not  hell. 


214  IMMORTALITY  v 

sufferer,  that  punishment  must  at  least  bear  some  pro- 
portion to  the  sin.  To  say  that  any  sin  deserves  an 
*'  infinite  "  penalty  is  an  outrage  to  the  very  sense  of 
fairness  which  the  argument  invokes.  Many  will  find 
it  difficult  to  conceive  of  the  God  of  Jesus  inflicting 
any  punishment  after  death  which  is  not  in  some  way 
remedial  and  disciplinary  ;  it  is  certainly  impossible  to 
regard  Him  as  condemning  any  sinner  to  unending  and 
purposeless  torments.  To  fall  back  on  the  arbitrary 
decrees  of  God,  to  say  that  in  this  respect  His  ways  are 
not  as  our  ways,  and  that  the  highest  ethical  judgments 
we  can  form  are  no  criterion  of  His  actions,  is  simply 
fatal  to  all  religion.  "  We  who  believe  in  Christ  know 
nothing  more  certainly  than  the  character  of  God.  We 
know  that  He  is  perfect  love,  perfect  equity.  We  are 
quite  justified  in  refusing  to  believe  about  Him  anything 
which  would  be  inconsistent  with  the  highest  goodness 
we  can  conceive."  ^ 

Once  more  there  are  grave  moral  difficulties  with 
regard  to  the  belief  in  the  dissolution  of  personality  as 
the  universal  fate  of  sinners.  For  it  is  an  admission  of 
the  failure  of  the  love  of  God.  The  absolute  value  of 
each  soul  is  a  cardinal  doctrine  of  Christianity.  We 
must  believe  that  God  created  each  soul  for  a  good  end, 
for  the  happiness  of  communion  with  Himself  and 
others,  and  of  playing  a  part  in  the  working  out  of  His 
purpose  for  the  universe.  The  soul  that  ceases  to  be 
represents,  therefore,  a  failure  of  the  divine  purpose, 
however  much  that  failure  may  be  due  to  its  own  sin. 
It  means  that  love  has  failed  to  overcome  the  obstacles. 
If  it  is  difficult  to  believe  this  of  any  souls  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  believe  it  of  a  large  fraction  of  mankind.^ 

^  Gore,  Rtligion  of  the  Church,  p.  90.  On  the  question  of  the  validity  of  our 
ethical  judgments  as  a  criterion  of  God's  ways,  I  would  venture  to  refer  to  what  I 
have  written  elsewhere  in  The  Faith  aiii  the  War,  pp.  193  f. 

2  See  above,  p.  210,  on  the  point  that  the  New  Testament  does  in  fact  regard  a 
large  proportion  as  "on  the  wrong  side  of  the  line."  The  question  naturally  arises 
as  to  why  the  New  Testament  writers  failed  to  realise  the  moral  difficulties  involved 
in  this  position,  difficulties  which  were  plain  to  the  author  of  4  Esdras.  It  may  be 
suggested  that  they  were  completely  possessed  v/ith  exultation  at  the  extension  of 
God's  love  to  which  they  bore  witness.     Potentially  all  Gentiles  were  admitted  on 


V  THE  BIBLE  AND  HELL  215 

The  force  of  these  ethical  difficulties  is  widely  felt, 
but  it  is  feared  on  the  other  hand  that  to  surrender  the 
belief  in  hell  or  in  final  annihilation  would  be  to  deny 
the  eternal  consequences  of  right  or  wrong  choice,  to 
cut  at  the  root  of  the  sense  of  ultimate  responsibility, 
to  minimise  the  awfulness  of  sin  and  remove  a  main 
incentive  to  the  struggle  against  it.  If  everything  is 
bound  to  come  right  in  the  end,  why  need  we  bother 
overmuch  ? 

In  the  first  place  we  may  reply  that  it  is  in  fact 
very  doubtful  how  far  the  fear  of  future  punishment 
is  a  very  effective  deterrent  against  sin  or  incentive  to 
virtue.  The  ages  when  it  was  treated  most  seriously 
are  certainly  not  the  most  moral  or  the  purest  in  church 
history.  Tyrrell's  experience  is  perhaps  not  very  common 
when  he  writes  :  *'  I  cannot  remember  any  time  of  my 
childhood,  or  afterwards,  when  the  fear  of  hell  or  desire 
of  heaven  had  the  slightest  practical  effect  on  my  con- 
duct "  ;  ^  but  it  is  quite  certain  that  the  ultimate  effect 
of  a  threat  which  the  conscience  does  not  acknowledge 
as  just  or  moral  cannot  be  either  very  great  or  desirable.^ 

In  the  second  place,  we  are  not  shut  up  to  the  view 
that  it  will  be  "  all  right "  for  every  one  after  death, 
that  good  and  bad,  loving  and  selfish,  will  all  find  them- 
selves equally  well  off.  The  New  Testament  division 
into  two  classes  does  no  doubt  correspond  to  some  divi- 

equal  terms  ;  in  fact  many  more  were  to  be  saved  than  any  one  had  expected.  This 
was  enough  for  the  moment,  and  they  did  not  go  on  to  face  the  problem  of  those 
who  refused  the  message  or  had  not  heard  it.  To  us  the  difficulty  is  not  that  some 
Gentiles  should  be  saved  but  that  any  soul  should  be  finally  lost. 

*   Autobiography  of  George  Tyrrell,  i.  pp.  22. 

'■*  An  anonymous  satirist  has  stated  the  argument  unmercifully,  but  not  unfairly  : 

To  others  the  doctrine  of  love  may  be  dear  ; 

I  own  I  confide  in  the  doctrine  of  fear  : 

There's  nothing,  I  think,  so  effective  to  make 

Our  weak  fellow-creatures  their  errors  forsake. 

As  to  tell  them  abruptly  with  unchanging  front, 

*' You'll  be  damned  if  you  do  !     You'll  be  damned  if  you  don't." 

A  new  generation  forthwith  must  arise. 

With  Beelzebub  picture<l  before  their  young  eyes. 

They'll  be  brave,  they'll  be  true,  they'll  be  gentle  and  kind 

Because  they  have  Satan  for  ever  in  mind. 


2i6  IMMORTALITY  v 

sion  in  the  next  world,  the  nature  of  which  we  can  only 
dimly  imagine.  But  we  do  not  interpret  it  as  final  in 
the  sense  that  it  excludes  all  hope  of  future  progress 
and  amendment  for  those  in  the  lower  class.  We  may, 
if  we  will,  retain  the  language  of  fire,  worms,  darkness, 
and  even  death,  so  long  as  we  interpret  them  in  terms 
of  purgatory  ^  and  not  of  a  final  hell.  Discipline  and 
suffering,  pangs  of  repentance  and  the  sense  of  what 
might  have  been,  delay  in  the  fulfilment  of  God's  pur- 
pose for  the  self  and  the  sense  that  His  love  has  been 
thwarted,  will  surely  all  be  elements  in  the  purifying 
process  through  which  the  soul  will  have  to  pass.  Such 
a  doctrine  of  the  future  is  not  an  easygoing  ignoring 
of  sin,  while  it  does  satisfy  our  ethical  demands. 

And  though  here  we  refuse  to  dogmatise,  we  keep 
open  the  solemn  possibility  that  final  dissolution  will  be 
the  ultimate  end  for  such  souls  as  have  completely  lost 
the  power  to  recognise  and  desire  goodness  and  respond 
to  the  love  of  God.  But  we  hold  that  so  far  as  we  can 
see,  this  stage  is  seldom  reached  in  this  life.  Even  in 
the  worst  we  know,  we  ourselves  can  always  find  some 
spark  of  goodness,  some  traits  of  love  and  unselfishness  ; 
all  evangelical  work  depends  on  this  principle.  So 
long  as  there  is  the  faintest  spark  of  the  divine  life 
in  the  soul,  there  remains  the  possibility  of  better 
things,  and  the  love  of  God  has  something  on  which 
to  work.  We  dare  not  abandon  the  hope  of  progress 
and  forgiveness  after  death  for   such  a  soul.^     Only 

1  As  has  often  been  pointed  out,  it  is  very  remarkable  that  the  modern  Roman 
doctrine  in  its  most  widely  prevalent  form  teaches  that  Purgatory  is  only  penal  and 
vindictive  ;  it  is  the  place  where  the  soul,  -which  is  already  sa-ved  and Jorgi-ven,  works 
out  the  temporal  consequences  of  its  sin.  The  growing  modern  use  of  the  term,  like 
the  early  mediaeval,  regards  it  as  a  place  of  purification  and  growth,  while  of  course 
it  rejects  the  various  superstitions  connected  with  it.      Cf.  p.  139. 

-  A  popular  view,  keeping  the  theoretical  doctrine  of  hell  but  attempting  to 
minimise  it  as  far  as  possible,  holds  that  in  such  cases  the  soul  is  redeemed  in  this 
life  by  an  unconscious  faith  in  Christ,  however  rudimentary.  But  this,  like  Pusey's 
extension  of  death-bed  repentances,  only  keeps  the  form  of  the  orthodox  language  at 
the  expense  of  its  meaning.  The  New  Testament  writers  did  not  include  in  the 
Kingdom  all  who  died  with  any  unextinguished  spark  of  goodness,  even  in  the  some- 
what rare  cases  where  they  contemplate  salvation  without  a  personal  faith  in  Christ 
(see  above,  p.  198). 


V  THE  BIBLE  AND  HELL  217 

where  the  Spirit  is  definitely  quenched  will  the  soul 
cease  to  be.^ 

As  to  details,  the  how  and  where  of  progress,  the 
stages  through  which  the  soul  must  pass,  and  where  it 
will  finally  rest,  we  may  refuse  to  dogmatise,  or  even  to 
surmise.  We  are  only  certain  about  our  religious  and 
ethical  principles — that  the  God  revealed  in  Christ  is  a 
God  of  love,  that  each  soul  He  has  made  has  an 
absolute  value,  that  He  cannot  allow  His  children  to 
suffer  hopelessly  and  without  purpose,  that  His  love 
has  supreme  power  to  draw  out  the  best  in  every  soul 
and  to  destroy  evil.  These  principles  are  admitted  by 
all  Christians,  but  they  have  not  always  been  applied 
unflinchingly  and  consistently  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
future.^  Augustine  speaks  of  Origen's  followers  who 
tried  to  do  so  as  "  deceived  by  a  certain  human  kindness." 
But  it  is  a  very  halting  faith  which  fears  that  a  thorough- 
going belief  in  the  love  of  God  and  in  the  reflection  of 
that  love  which  we  find  in  our  own  conscience  and 
actions  at  their  best  will  deceive  us.  The  Good 
Shepherd  who  seeks  for  the  lost  sheep  will  not  rest  till 
he  has  saved  the  goats. 

The  infant  Church,  of  love  she  felt  the  tide 
Stream  on  her  from  her  Lord's  yet  recent  grave. 

And  then  she  smiled  ;  and  in  the  Catacombs, 
With  eye  suffused  but  heart  inspired  true, 
On  those  walls  subterranean,  where  she  hid 
Her  head  'mid  ignominy,  death,  and  tombs, 
She  her  Good  Shepherd's  hasty  image  drew — 
And  on  his  shoulders,  not  a  lamb,  a  kid.^ 

^  This  is  not  quite  the  doctrine  of  •'  conditional  immortality."  That  says  the 
soul  is  not  immortal  till  it  has  won  eternal  life  j  this  says  it  is  immortal  till  it  has 
forfeited  its  boon  by  an  extreme  of  wilful  sin.  More  and  more  we  sec  that  it  is 
goodness  which  is  essentially  immortal  and  there  is  no  serious  philosophical  difficulty 
in  believing  in  the  dissolution  of  the  completely  bad  personality. 

2  There  is  food  for  thought  in  a  pregnant  remark  of  Dr.  Charles  :  "  The 
eschatology  of  the  nation  is  always  the  last  part  of  its  religion  to  experience  the 
transforming  power  of  new  ideas  and  facts.  The  eschatology  of  Israel  was  at  times 
six  hundred  years  behind  its  theology."  "So  far  as  the  Christian  Churches  hold 
fast  to  the  doctrine  [sc.  of  eternal  punishment]  taken  over  from  Judaism  at  the 
Christian  era,  their  eschatology  is  nearly  two  thousand  years  behind  their  doctrine 
of  God  and  Christ." — Benveen  the  Old  and  N civ  Testaments,  pp.  128,  131. 

3  M.  Arnold,  The  Good  Shepherd  with  the  Kid. 


VI 

A    DREAM    OF    HEAVEN 

BY 

A.  CLUTTON-BROCK 


219 


SYNOPSIS 

Myths  of  Heaven  and  their  meaning.  They  give  us  life  emptied  of 
irrelevance.  That  irrelevance  is  the  struggle  for  life — from  which  we 
escape  in  art.  In  art  men  are  led  to  prophesy  of  Heaven.  But  the  myths 
of  the  artists  are  taken  literally  and  misunderstood.  So  comes  the  conven- 
tional idea  of  Heaven,  of  characterless  angels  and  saints.  An  example. 
But  we  are  not  fit  for  the  perfection  we  imagine  in  Heaven.  We  must 
need  to  be  trained  to  it  and  yet  to  remain  ourselves.  But  there  we  shall  be 
rid  of  all  the  unreal  part  of  ourselves,  and  the  reality  in  us  will  recognise 
the  reality  of  Heaven.  The  problem  of  the  wicked.  Purgatory  will  really 
be  enrichment.  We  know  that  what  we  need  is  enrichment.  How  shall 
we  be  rid  of  the  evil  in  ourselves  ?  By  punishing  ourselves.  The  pain  of 
Heaven  will  be  in  our  sense  of  our  inadequacy.  The  reality  and  uncer- 
tainty of  Heaven. 


VI 


A  DREAM  OF  HEAVEN 

There  have  been  many  myths  of  a  future  blessed 
state,  Valhalla,  the  Islands  of  the  Blessed,  Dante's 
Paradise  and  the  Visions  of  the  Apocalypse  ;  and  there 
is  no  truth  in  any  of  them  except  for  those  who  know 
that  they  are  myths — in  Plato's  sense  of  that  word — 
and  for  whom  they  express  a  belief  that  can  be  expressed 
only  in  an  artistic  form.  These  myths,  for  those  who 
understand  their  nature,  have  the  same  relation  to  reality 
that  music  has  to  actual  experience.  Music  is  an  expres- 
sion of  actual  experience,  but  in  terms  of  pure  emotion 
not  of  representation.  So  the  myth  is  an  expression  of 
what  is  believed  to  be  real  but  not  in  terms  of  repre- 
sentation. It  is  art,  not  science  ;  it  is  like  music,  an 
answer  given  by  the  mind  to  reality,  an  answer  which 
does  not  reproduce  reality  but  transmutes  it  into  another 
form.  There  is  prophecy  in  it,  as  there  is  in  music,  the 
prophecy  of  another  state  of  being  freed  from  all  the 
insignificance  of  this  ;  and  of  that  state  of  being  man 
can  prophesy  only  by  creating  it  in  an  artistic  form. 
"  Heaven  is  music,"  Campion  says  ;  it  is  life  become 
music  ;  and  when  men  dream  and  talk,  as  they  naturally 
do,  of  this  heaven  of  music,  they  mean,  if  it  has  any 
reality  to  them,  not  a  perpetual  singing  of  hymns  but  a 
life  that  is  music,  a  life  not  emptied  of  its  content  but 
freed  from  its  irrelevance,  as  poetry  is  speech  not  emptied 
of  content  but  freed  from  irrelevance. 

This  irrelevance  in  life  is,  for  all  of  us,  the  struggle 


222  IMMORTALITY  vi 

for  life,  the  fact  that  we  are  here  tied  and  bound  by  a 
perpetual  effort  to  go  on  living.  It  is  from  the  thought 
of  that  struggle  that  we  escape  in  art.  Our  common 
speech  is  hampered  by  haphazard  necessities  ;  it  is  a 
hand-to-mouth  means  of  expressing  our  wants  and  has 
been  developed  in  the  expression  of  them.  But  we 
have  always  the  idea  of  a  speech  freed  from  these  wants 
and  no  longer  at  the  mercy  of  haphazard  necessities  ; 
and  we  make  that  speech  in  poetry.  The  rhythm  of 
poetry  is  itself  a  freed  movement,  which  has  escaped 
from  the  pressure  of  the  struggle  for  life  ;  it  is  a  move- 
ment willed  by  the  poet,  not  imposed  upon  him  by 
emergencies,  a  movement  in  which  he  expresses  himself 
and  not  his  wants.  And  so  the  dance  is  freer  and  more 
expressive  walking  ;  and,  as  for  music,  it  is  sound  freed 
altogether,  sound  become  purely  rhythmical  and  expres- 
sive in  itself,  being  freed  even  from  the  fetters  of  sense. 
So  all  rhythm  is  a  prophecy  of  a  freer  state  of  being,  a 
state  in  which  man  escapes  from  the  struggle  for  life  to 
the  expression  of  his  own  values,  his  own  ideals  ;  and 
in  all  art,  the  more  completely  it  is  art,  there  is  the  sense 
of  heaven,  whether  it  be  a  triumphant  prophecy  of  it 
or  an  aching  desire  for  it.  Even  in  despair  the  artist 
conjures  up  the  freedom  of  that  heaven  of  which  he 
despairs  ;  for  he  expresses  his  despair  in  the  free  speech 
of  heaven. 

And  this  free  speech  leads  men  to  prophesy  of 
Heaven,  almost  without  knowing  it.  Morris  suddenly, 
in  a  poem  to  Iceland,  is  carried  by  his  own  music  into 
a  myth  of  Iceland  which  his  music  brings  to  life  in  his 
mind  : — 

Ah  !   when  thy  Balder  comes  back,  and  bears  from  the  heart  of  the 

Sun 
Peace  and  the  healing  of  pain,  and  the  wisdom   that  waiteth  no 

more, 
And  the  lilies  are  laid  on  thy  brow  'mid  the  crown  of  the  deeds 

thou  hast  done, 
And  the  roses  spring  up  by  thy  feet  that  the  rocks  of  the  wilderness 

wore  ; 


VI  A  DREAM  OF  HEAVEN  223 

Ah  !   when  thy  Balder  comes  back  and  vvc  gather  the  gains  he  hath 

won. 
Shall  we  not  linger  a  little  to  talk  of  thy  sweetness  of  old, 
Yea,  turn  back  awhile  to  thy  travail,  whence  the  Gods  stood  aloof 

to  behold  ? 

There  is  the  desire  making  a  prophecy  of  what  It 
desires  ;  there  is  the  poet  making  a  heaven  out  of  what 
he  loves  in  this  world  and  impelled  to  make  it  by  the 
heavenly  freedom  of  his  own  speech. 

But,  though  in  these  heavens  of  art  life  is  freed  from 
its  slavery  to  the  struggle  for  life,  it  is  not  therefore 
emptied  of  content  but  rather  enriched  with  more  of  it. 
It  is  a  fuller  life  because  a  freer  ;  and  the  artist  makes 
his  myth  to  express  his  longing  for  freedom,  for  a  posi- 
tive freedom.  He  conceives  of  a  state  in  which  men 
shall  act  without  the  spur  of  the  struggle  for  life.  That 
is  what  immortality  means  to  him  ;  above  all,  it  is  the 
consciousness  of  freedom,  it  is  an  everlasting  now.  Into 
which  man  can  throw  the  whole  of  himself  without 
looking  before  or  after.  It  is  not  that  he  will  live  a 
life  emptied  of  sorrow,  but  that  he  will  rejoice  or  mourn 
always  with  the  freedom  of  passion,  and  not  for  himself. 
For  It  is  the  struggle  for  life  that  binds  us  to  ourselves ; 
the  tyranny  of  the  struggle  for  life  is  the  tyranny  of  a 
self  that  cannot  be  forgotten  ;  and  that  is  what  the 
constant  passion  in  the  mind  of  man  rebels  against. 

But  the  myths  of  the  artist — and  the  prophets  and 
seers  who  created  the  Christian  myth  were  not  the 
less  but  rather  the  more  artists  because  they  had 
religious  genius — are  always  being  misunderstood  by 
those  who  have  not  imagination  enough  to  conceive  of 
a  life  which  is  still  really  alive  though  freed  from  the 
struggle  for  life.  For  them  Heaven  is  mere  Idleness  ; 
and  they  cast  about  for  something  to  do  in  It.  They 
assume  that  it  must  be  a  pious  idleness  ;  they  are  told 
by  the  artist  in  his  myths  that  it  is  the  free  life  of  art  ; 
but  they  do  not  understand  what  he  means  by  this.  So 
to  them  this  free  life  of  art  means  worship,  not  for  the 


224  IMMORTALITY  vi 

sake  of  worship,  but  because  worship  is  a  means  of 
acquiring  merit,  because  God  is  supposed  to  like  it. 
Heaven  is  music,  they  are  told  by  the  poets  ;  and  they 
suppose  this  to  be  a  statement  of  literal  fact.  So,  if 
they  are  members  of  the  Church  of  England,  they  sup- 
pose that  Heaven  is  an  eternity  of  Hymns  ancient  and 
modern,  sung  to  God  because  He  likes  to  hear  them. 

Where  the  bright  seraphim  in  burning  row 
Their  loud  uplifted  angel  trumpets  blow. 
And  the  Cherubic  host  in  thousand  choirs 
Touch  their  immortal  harps  of  golden  wires. 

Empty  that  of  the  artist's  passion  for  positive  free- 
dom ;  empty  it  of  the  meaning  in  its  music,  which  is 
all  its  meaning  ;  regard  it,  not  as  a  myth,  but  as  a  state- 
ment of  fact,  and  it  becomes  the  conventional  notion  of 
heaven,  as  far  from  what  Milton  meant  as  a  reproduc- 
tion of  Fra  Angelico's  Paradise  on  a  picture  post-card 
is  from  what  Fra  Angelico  meant  when  he  painted  the 
picture. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  the  conventional  idea  of 
Heaven,  produced  by  people  for  the  most  part  morbidly 
absorbed  in  morals,  is  a  state  of  being  in  which  art  will 
be  the  only  activity.  Heaven  to  them  is  music,  and 
music  which  they  will  all  know  by  heart,  like  Church 
hymns.  But  a  decent  state  of  being  cannot  be  all 
art  any  more  than  all  morals.  The  artist  must  live  ; 
he  must  experience  before  he  can  give  out  his  experi- 
ence in  art ;  and  he  enjoys  the  taking  in  as  much  as 
the  giving  out.  Besides,  he  must  produce  his  own 
art  out  of  the  exercise  of  all  his  other  faculties.  He 
must  in  fact  be  free  ;  and  freer  in  a  future  state  than 
here,  if  it  is  to  be  anything  like  Heaven  and  not 
rather  on  the  way  to  Hell.  Hence  it  is  that  the  con- 
ventional Heaven  of  the  conventionally  devout  is 
unreal  ;  unreal  even  to  them  because  it  is  bad  art,  art 
emptied  of  content  and  so  life  emptied  of  content.  It 
is  joy,  but  a  joy  they  cannot  conceive,  and  therefore  an 
empty  conventional  joy  ;  the  joy  of  an  Academy  picture. 


VI  A  DREAM  OF  HEAVEN  225 

or  of  that  hymn  which  cries,  "  Oh,  let  us  be  joyful," 
without  knowing  how  to  set  about  it. 

Our  notions  of  perfection,  in  so  far  as  they  come  at 
all  from  our  actual  experience,  are  notions  really  of 
sudden  and  extreme  joy,  of  achievement,  recognition, 
or  reconciliation.  This  joy  there  must  be  in  Heaven  ; 
but  it  always  has  to  be  earned,  and  could  not  be  itself 
if  it  were  not  earned.  We  cannot,  so  to  speak,  pay  a 
life  subscription  for  it  and  have  it  without  further  effort 
throughout  eternity.  Nor  should  we  be  satisfied  with 
a  universe  in  which  we  could.  Such  a  Heaven  would 
be  like  an  everlasting  club,  in  which  we  should  all  pass 
the  time,  having  retired  from  business.  But  the  best  of 
men  do  not  wish  to  retire  from  business  ;  they  wish 
rather  for  a  business  freed  from  the  struggle  for  life, 
and  all  the  more  intense  for  that  reason. 

Again,  in  the  conventional  Heaven  all  the  human 
beings  there  are,  like  the  hymns  they  sing,  emptied  of 
content ;  they  are  made  good  by  losing  their  characters. 
And  this  comes  of  men's  impotence  to  conceive  a  life 
freed  from  the  struggle  for  life.  That  is  why  the  myths 
are  meaningless  to  them,  since  they  are  myths  of  a  life 
freed  from  the  struggle  for  life  yet  not  emptied  of  its 
content  ;  and  of  human  beings  freed  also,  but  not 
emptied  of  their  character,  and  not  left  with  nothing  to 
do.  Heaven  would  not  be  Heaven  to  us  if  we  ourselves, 
and  all  others,  were  made  good  by  losing  our  characters. 
If  we  are  to  love  each  other  in  Heaven  it  must  be  we 
ourselves  that  love  each  other,  ourselves  with  all  the 
savour  of  individual  character  still  about  us.  If  we 
think  of  Heaven  as  a  real  place  it  is  as  a  heaven  of  real 
people  doing  real  things.  I  imagine  to  myself,  for 
instance,  Henry  James  in  Heaven.  If  it  were  the  con- 
ventional state  of  blessedness,  what  a  polite  but  per- 
sistent note  of  interrogation  he  would  sound  in  it  ;  how 
he  would  still  labour  incessantly  to  find  the  phrase  that 
would  exactly  describe  his  dislike  of  it.  At  least,  if  he 
did  not,  he  would  be  no  longer  Henry  James,  but  a 

Q 


226  IMMORTALITY  vi 

spirit  beatified,  like  the  spirits  in  the  bad  pictures,  by 
being  emptied  of  content.  Just  as  he  used  to  watch  the 
splendours  of  the  rich,  seeking  all  the  while  his  phrases 
for  them  and  making  the  splendours  tolerable  to  him- 
self only  with  the  phrases  ;  so  he  would  watch  the  four- 
and-twenty  elders  casting  down  their  golden  crowns 
beside  the  glassy  sea.^ 

"  Yes,"  he  would  say,  "  it  is  a  ritual,  most  im- 
pressive no  doubt,  all  that  one  can  imagine  of  disciplined 
ardour.  There  is  achievement,  a  very  real  achievement, 
in  it  ;  and  yet  I  find  myself  asking  more  and  more 
insistently — Why  ?  and  above  all — Why  so  often  ?  I 
cannot  conceal  from  myself  that  it  all  seems  to  belong 
to  the  past,  to  be  a  little  musty  and  romantic,  like  the 
smell  of  incense  in  a  Baroque  church.  I  take  off  my 
hat  to  it  of  course ;  one  must  be  grateful  to  an 
entertainment  so  splendid,  so  finished  ^ — but  will  it 
never  be  finished  ?  That  is  what  I  find  myself  asking, 
as  I  say,  with  ever-increasing  insistence.  Let  us  come 
away,  my  dear  fellow,  to  some  quiet  place,  if  we  can 
find  one,  and  talk  it  all  over."  His  state  of  blessed- 
ness, if  he  were  still  himself,  would  be  talking  it  all 
over  with  an  enhanced  power  of  hinting,  in  involved 
but  exquisitely  adjusted  sentences,  just  what  he  would 
prefer  instead  of  it. 

In  any  future  life  we  may  have  a  great  access  of 
knowledge  and  power  ;  but  that  access  must  come  to 
us  ourselves.  It  is  I  myself  that  will  experience  it. 
It  is  I  and  so  it  will  be  I.  The  will  be  must  be 
connected  with  the  is  ;  or  I  shall  not  be  I.  In  many 
ideas  of  a  future  state  the  will  be  is  not  connected  with 
the  is  at  all  through  the  I,  and  that  is  why  so  many 
men  cease  to  believe  in  a  future  state  at  all  or  even  to 
desire  it.  They  cannot  imagine  themselves  as  being, 
if  they  are  not  to  be  themselves. 

But  are  any  of  us,  being  what  we  are,  fit  for  a  life 

^  Henry  James  must  have  admired,  as  much  as  any  man,  the  magnificent  imagery 
of  this  scene.  He  would  be  wearied  by  a  Heaven  in  which  it  was  not  imagery  but 
fact. 


VI  A  DREAM  OF  HEAVEN  227 

without  the  struggle  for  life  ?  We  may  be  able  to 
conceive  it,  to  prophesy  of  it,  in  art  ;  but  art  here  is 
not  life  ;  and  we  must  never  forget  that.  Life  here  is 
not  music,  but  a  struggle  for  life  which  at  best  rises,  at 
rare  moments,  into  music.  Beauty  for  us,  righteousness 
for  us,  flower  out  of  the  struggle  for  life  ;  seeming  to 
be  wonderful  by-products  of  it,  and  yet  the  by- 
products for  which  we  live.  A  man  of  science  said 
to  me  once  that  the  struggle  for  life  is  only  a  pass 
examination  ;  you  must  pass  it  so  that  you  may  go 
on  to  the  real  content  of  life,  and  rise  to  its  real 
meaning.  But  we  have  to  be  passing  it  all  the  time ; 
and  could  we  rise  to  the  real  content  of  life  at  all,  if 
we  were  not  always  passing  it  ?  We  have  this  power 
of  rising  above  it  for  a  moment  ;  all  of  us  have  it, 
even  if  we  are  not  artists  ;  but  could  we  have  it  if 
there  were  not  the  struggle  to  rise  above.''  That  is 
the  question  we  must  always  ask  ourselves  ;  and 
because  we  cannot  answer  yes,  we  know  that  we  are 
not  fit  for  Heaven,  even  if  it  be  there  waiting  for  us. 
We  are  not  fit  for  a  life  free  from  the  struggle  for  life. 
Out  of  that  very  struggle  arises  for  us  fellowship 
between  men  and  the  love  of  a  mother  for  her  child, 
the  wild  virtues  from  which  Christianity  has  drawn  its 
idea  of  God  himself.  Love,  fellowship,  these  come  to 
us  out  of  the  struggle  for  life  ;  it  is  through  that  very 
struggle  that  we  transcend  it,  just  as  beauty  comes  into 
objects  of  use  through  their  use.  Divorce  them  from 
their  use,  and  the  beauty  is  meaningless  ;  and  so,  it 
seems  to  us,  we  should  be  meaningless  if  we  were 
divorced  from  our  struggle  for  life.  If  we  were  turned 
suddenly  into  Angels  we  should  be  but  domestic  pets 
kept  by  God. 

We  are  all  so  unfit  for  perfection  that  it  would  be 
a  nightmare  to  us  if  we  were  thrown  into  it.  God  is 
not  so  cruel  as  that,  and  if  He  loves  us,  He  loves  us 
for  what  we  are.  He  does  not  wish  to  change  us  into 
something    utterly    different.       He    must    have    liked 


228  IMMORTALITY  vi 

Henry  James,  as  he  was  here  ;  He  could  not  wish  to 
change  him  into  a  pattern  saint,  so  that  he  might  enjoy 
a  pattern  Heaven,  Besides,  our  capacity  for  enjoyment 
is  ourselves  ;  and  we  exist  in  a  relation  with  real 
things,  in  a  relation  already  with  God  who  is  real  even 
here  and  will  be  more  real  hereafter.  But  He  is  real 
to  us  in  these  real  things,  and  in  the  very  imperfection 
of  them  which  is  akin  to  our  own  imperfection.  There 
is  always  something  homely  to  us  in  our  sense  of  Him, 
and  we  are  most  sure  of  it  in  homely  and  humble  and 
very  imperfect  things,  when  we  suddenly  discover  their 
beauty  by  our  own  effort.  As  the  poet  says  of  children, 
"  God's  speech  is  on  their  stammering  tongue,  and  His 
compassion  in  their  smile."  But  we  have  to  find  it. 
It  is  not  forced  upon  us  like  the  finished  charms  of  a 
society  beauty  or  the  splendour  of  a  grand  hotel. 
These  things  are  unreal,  however  much  we  may  think 
we  admire  them  ;  because  we  ourselves  make  no  answer- 
ing effort  to  them.  What  they  have  to  give  us  is  forced 
upon  us,  like  the  condescensions  of  a  kind  lady  to  the 
poor.  Heaven  cannot  be  like  that  or  it  would  be 
Hell  to  all  except  the  abject.  No  ;  the  future  life 
must  be  more  real,  not  less  ;  and  we  too  shall  be  more 
real  both  to  ourselves  and  to  each  other.  Already  we 
are  the  children  of  God,  and  that  means  that  we  are 
growing  into  a  kind  of  equality  with  Him.  This 
equality  cannot  be  given  to  us  or  it  would  not  be 
equality.  We  must  grow  into  it  and  be  always  grow- 
ing. God  is  love  before  He  is  power  ;  power  is  merely 
an  attribute  of  the  love  ;  and  because  God  is  love  we 
must  have  an  independence  of  Him.  He  could  not 
love  us  if  we  were  His  creatures  in  the  old  mechanical 
sense.  He  can  love  us  only  if  we  are  ourselves,  as  He 
is  Himself ;  and  we  are  equal  with  Him  in  that  we  are 
ourselves,  and  not  creatures  made  to  love  Him  like 
mechanical  toys  for  His  amusement.  What  we  call 
creation  is  the  gift  of  independent  life  without  which 
we  could  not  be  loved  or  love.     And  we  must  keep 


VI  A  DREAM  OF  HEAVEN  229 

this  notion  of  independent  life  in  all  our  ideas  of  a 
future  state,  or  it  will  not  be  life  at  all. 

And  this  future  life  must  be  such  that  it  will 
accommodate  all  the  actual  people  whom  we  know 
here  well  enough  to  love  them.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  it  will  not  accommodate  our  ideas  of  the  people 
whom  we  do  not  know  and  do  not  love.  It  will  not 
contain  our  ideas  of  the  Germans,  or  the  German  ideas 
of  us.  These  are  in  the  main  phantoms  of  this  life  ;  for 
it  is  infested  with  phantoms  that  we  throw  up  out  of 
ourselves,  that  are,  as  we  say,  subjective.  For  here  we 
have  not  enough  commerce  with  reality  and  are  always 
making  unreal  substitutes  for  it.  The  madman  is 
one  who  cannot  face  reality  and  who  is  always  altering 
it  in  his  own  mind  and  believing  in  his  alterations. 
And  we  all  have  this  tendency  to  madness.  We 
throw  out  these  phantoms  and  live  among  them.  But 
the  future  life  will  be  swept  clean  of  them  and  we 
shall  leave  them  behind  us  like  dust  and  litter  when 
we  change  houses.  It  will  be  swept  clean  of  our 
hatreds,  our  hostile  generalisations  about  hostile  classes 
and  peoples,  our  sense  of  status,  our  bad  art,  our 
formulae,  moral,  intellectual,  and  aesthetic,  our  habit 
of  valuing  the  temporal  as  the  eternal.  These  are  the 
phantoms,  our  own  absurd  creations,  that  we  shall  leave 
behind  with  death.  They  are  not  part  of  reality,  as 
dreams  are  not  part  of  our  waking  hours.  We  shall 
feel  them  gone  like  a  nightmare,  when  we  wake 
from  it,  but  we  ourselves  with  all  our  capacities  still 
imperfect  will  not  be  gone. 

The  mere  act  of  dying  cannot,  of  course,  free  a 
man  at  once  from  all  capacity  for  illusion.  Some 
men  have  false  standards  of  value  so  deeply  engrained 
in  them,  they  have  trained  themselves  so  thoroughly 
into  blindness  to  reality,  that  on  the  threshold  of  the 
next  life  they  may  begin  again  to  create  for  themselves 
new  phantoms  and  new  delusions.  But,  at  least,  there 
will  be  the  possibility  of  a  fresh  start. 


230  IMMORTALITY  vi 

If  the  universe,  if  reality,  is  really  a  home  to  us,  we 
shall  find  it  more  of  a  home  when  we  are  rid  of  the  litter 
and  phantoms  of  this  life,  which  are  here  our  property 
and  not  ourselves.  And  we  shall  come  into  this  home, 
not  as  strangers  needing  to  learn  the  customs  and 
the  language,  but  as  exiles  returning  with  memories 
awakened  at  every  step.  Everywhere  we  shall  recognise 
those  people  and  things  that  are  according  to  our 
idea  and  memory  of  home,  as  we  now  recognise  a 
great  tune  when  we  hear  it  for  the  first  time.  It  is 
as  if  we  were  helping  to  make  it  ourselves.  It  is 
we  ourselves  that  speak  in  it  and  say  what  we  have 
always  wanted  to  say.  So  this  future  life  will  seem 
to  be  ours  and  always  to  have  been  ours  ;  only  we 
have  never  managed  to  live  in  it  before.  It  will  be 
the  expression  of  what  we  always  knew  about  reality 
but  could  not  even  dare  to  whisper  to  ourselves.  Nor 
will  it  seem  to  be  a  reward  to  us  but  rather  something 
that  we  have  been  fools  not  to  make  for  ourselves 
before.  Music  is  not  a  prize  for  being  good  ;  it  is 
not  something  that  the  musician  imposes  upon  us, 
but  a  revelation  that  suddenly  we  share  with  him. 
And  we  can  share  it  only  because  in  our  values  we 
are  his  equals  and  of  like  mind  with  him,  though  we 
could  not  have  expressed  our  minds  without  his 
help.  That  is  an  image  of  our  equality  with  God. 
He  makes  the  music  but  we  recognise  it ;  and  He 
does  not  make  the  music  for  Himself  but  for  us  ; 
His  joy  is  in  our  recognition  of  it,  and  to  be  one 
with  us  in  that  recognition. 

What  we  have  in  common  with  each  other  is 
this  power  of  recognition  of  the  same  thing,  the  same 
God,  the  same  reality,  quod  semper^  quod  ubique^  quod 
ah  omnibus.  How  much  of  what  separates  us  from 
each  other  is  in  those  phantoms  which  we  throw  up 
out  of  our  own  minds  and  which  fill  the  spiritual 
air  between  us  and  pester  us  with  the  sting  and  buzz 
of  our   own   egotism !     When    they   are  gone   it   will 


VI  A  DREAM  OF  HEAVEN  231 

be  an  ampler  aether,  a  diviner  air,  in  which  we  shall 
recognise  each  other  and  shall  be  more  purely  our- 
selves. There,  too,  we  shall  not  be  born  as  we  are 
here  into  a  life  infested  with  the  phantoms  of  past 
minds  that  have  gone  and  left  them  behind,  with 
bad  art,  and  formulae,  and  inherited  rancours.  But 
this  future  will  not  be  unsubstantial  because  free  of 
all  those  phantoms  ;  rather  it  will  be  far  more  real,  for 
it  is  the  phantoms  here  that  afflict  us  with  a  sense 
of  unreality,  cutting  us  off  from  that  fellowship  in 
which  alone  reality  can  be  found.  Reality,  to  me, 
here,  is  in  what  I  love,  not  in  what  I  hate  ;  and  I  do 
not  love  from  mere  habit  and  just  what  happens  to 
be  round  me.  I  love  from  recognition  of  what  is 
everlastingly  lovable  ;  and  this  will  last  into  a  future 
life.  That  everlastingly  lovable  will  be  the  connection 
between  the  future  life  and  this  one,  as  I  myself  shall 
be  the  connection.  It  is  the  spirit  that  gives  form, 
and  the  beauty  of  things  made  by  man  is  the  form 
given  to  them  by  the  spirit  of  man.  So,  as  the  spirit 
will  persist,  the  beauty  will  persist  also  and  will  be 
of  the  same  nature,  whether  it  come  from  man  or 
from  God,  and  whatever  its  material  may  be.  The 
beauty  we  shall  recognise  even  if  its  material  be  strange 
to  us.  We  shall  not  have  to  l^arn  it  all  afresh  ;  and 
we  shall  recognise  it  the  more  easily  because  all  our 
present  ugly  phantoms  of  beauty  will  be  gone.  So 
will  the  false  phantoms  we  mistake  for  truth,  and  the 
evil  phantoms  we  miscall  goodness. 

In  this  life  progress  means  that  we  become  freer 
of  the  tyranny  of  the  past.  I  am  aware  of  progress 
in  myself  when  I  am  able  suddenly  to  live  in  the 
present  and  no  longer  to  see  it  only  through  the 
phantoms  of  my  own  past.  Only  then  do  I  become 
myself  and  not  something  else  subject  to  what  I  have 
been.  The  difficulty,  for  us,  is  to  go  on  being  freshly 
ourselves  in  an  eternally  fresh  relation  with  what  is. 
We  are   always   falling   behind   our  actual   experience, 


232  IMMORTALITY  vi 

judging  it  as  if  it  were  a  something  that  had  happened 
before,  as  if  it  were  actually  in  the  past  for  us ; 
and  so  we  judge  other  men  as  if  they  were  tied  by 
their  past.  That  is  how  we  find  it  difficult  to  forget 
and  to  forgive.  They  are  to  us  what  they  have  done  ; 
and  we  become  to  ourselves  what  we  have  done  ;  and 
so  come  to  think  of  all  things  as  bound  by  a  chain 
of  cause  and  effect.  But  progress  in  another  life  will 
be  a  greater  freedom  from  this  tyranny  of  the  past.^ 
We  shall  begin  afresh,  but  it  will  be  we  ourselves 
that  begin.  All  status  will  be  swept  away  like  cob- 
webs. We  shall  love  Shakespeare  for  himself,  not  for  his 
reputation,  and  we  shall  come  much  nearer  to  loving 
God  also  for  Himself  and  not  for  His  reputation. 

We  all  have  some  fear  of  the  strangeness  of  a 
future  state  into  which  we  shall  come  like  new  boys 
to  school.  Certainly  we  may  feel  naked  there  because 
we  shall  have  lost  all  status,  we  shall  be  free  of  our 
past  both  ways,  from  the  comfort  and  from  the  dis- 
comfort of  it.  So  Mr.  Roosevelt  will  not  be  asked  to 
make  a  speech  there  ;  but  neither  will  he  be  caricatured 
in  comic  weeklies.  It  will  no  doubt  be  hard  for  all 
of  us  at  first  to  do  without  the  comfort  of  our  past  ; 
but  we  shall  soon  find  it  bracing.  We  may  wish 
to  fall  back  upon  our  own  past  achievements  out 
of  the  new  life  of  everlasting  fresh  achievement  and 
activity.  When  we  have  done  something  well  we  may 
wish  to  step  back  and  look  at  it,  instead  of  going 
on  at  once  to  do  something  else.  But  the  others 
will  be  doing  well  too  and  not  talking  about  it ;  and 
we  shall  soon  find  that  we  are  happier  than  we  had 
ever  thought  possible  in  admiring  what  they  do.  There 
will  be  a  perpetual  current  of  all  things  drawing  us 
into  fellowship  with  a  force  that  may  be  painful  to  us 
at  first  ;  and  those  who  have  grown  part  of  the  current 
will  have  forgotten  utterly  the  dividing  habits  of  this 

^  I  need  hardly  say  that  by  freedom  from  the  past  here  I  do  not  mean  loss  of 
memory. 


VI  A  DREAM  OF  HEAVEN  233 

life  so  that  they  will  gently  discourage  us  from  talking 
about  ourselves.  There  will  be  none  of  those  silent 
treaties  of  egotism  by  which  some  men  band  together 
to  despise  others  ;  and,  if  we  at  first  make  ill-natured 
jokes,  no  one  will  see  the  point  of  them  ;  as  a  child 
does  not  see  the  point  of  a  dirty  story.  All  that 
may  even  seem  a  little  insipid  to  us  at  first,  as  fruit 
is  insipid  to  an  East  End  child  fed  on  liquorice  and 
whelks ;  but  in  time  we  shall  learn  to  relish  the 
celestial  fruit,  and  raise  ourselves  to  the  capacity  of 
enjoying  the  new  life. 

But  what  will  happen  to  the  people  who  seem 
here  entirely  disgusting — to  the  wicked  .'*  The  difficulty 
is  that  if  they  are  at  all  the  same  as  in  this  life,  they 
will  not  like  the  new  life.  Even  the  confirmed  club 
bore  will  not  like  it  unless  he  can  find  other  bores 
to  talk  to  ;  in  which  case  we  shall  begin  to  have  the 
same  old  trouble  all  over  again.  It  may  be  possible 
for  the  wicked  and  the  bores  and  the  bad  artists  to 
band  together  and  make  this  new  world  for  them- 
selves, and  partly  for  others,  like  the  old  one.  But 
all  these  people  live  among  their  own  phantoms  here, 
and  these  they  will  have  left  behind.  There  may 
be  a  very  small  residuum  of  reality  left  to  them 
when  all  the  phantasmal  part  is  gone,  but  this  residuum 
will  grow.  They  will  be  weaker  than  the  good,  they 
will  not  have  the  perverted  power  they  often  have 
here,  and  they  will  have  to  depend  on  the  good  and 
on  the  fulness  of  their  life.  I  think  they  will  be 
like  convalescents  after  a  long  illness,  very  frail  and 
timid  and  pathetic,  looking  on  at  the  happy  sports  of 
the  healthy  ;  and  they  will  desire  gradually  to  share  in 
these  sports.  They,  too,  will  be  drawn  into  the  current  ; 
and  life  will  come  to  them  from  their  contact  with 
it.  All  kinds  of  long-forgotten  memories  will  quicken 
in  their  minds,  and  with  these  will  return  to  them 
the  sense  of  reality  which  in  this  world  they  had  lost 
among  their  own    phantoms.     There   are   people   who 


234  IMMORTALITY  vi 

have  no  sense  of  reality  at  all  except  in  their  memories 
of  childhood.  All  that  they  do  and  think  and  feel  now 
seems  to  them  merely  provisional.  It  is  all  a  means 
to  something  else.  They  pass  through  life,  in  fact, 
as  if  they  were  in  the  waiting-room  at  Clapham 
Junction  ;  and  on  the  faces  of  the  vicious,  one  always 
seems  to  see  a  provisional  look,  as  if  they  lived  among 
makeshifts,  as  indeed  they  do.  In  the  future  Hfe 
they  will  not  be  able  to  stay  themselves  with  makeshifts. 
They  will  be  back  like  children  among  realities,  among 
the  things  that  are  worth  doing  for  their  own  sake, 
and  they  will  slowly  nerve  themselves  up  to  realities 
and  lose  all  that  false  shame,  which  in  this  world 
persuaded  them  that  realities  were  childish  and  beneath 
the  attention  of  men  of  the  world. 

Here  they  have  believed  nothing  ;  there  they  will 
learn  to  believe.  The  process  may  be  painful  at  first  ; 
one  may  call  it  Purgatory,  but  the  word  has  an  error 
latent  in  it.  For  it  is  not  purging  that  we  shall  need, 
but  enriching.  In  the  very  word  Purgatory  there  is 
already  a  perversion  of  what  we  really  mean  by  it,  a 
perversion  caused  by  our  dislike  of  one  another.  It 
seems  to  us  that  other  men  need  to  be  purged  of  all 
that  we  dislike  in  them,  but  if  we  think  of  ourselves  we 
know  quite  well  that  what  we  need  is  to  be  enriched. 
Purging  would  not  make  us  fit  for  Heaven,  there  would 
not  be  enough  of  us  left  for  it  when  we  were  purged. 
We  shall  be  purged  enough  by  leaving  this  world  and 
its  phantoms  behind  us  ;  but  we  shall  be  weak  and 
empty  after  the  process.  In  some  cases  that  thread  of 
self  connecting  this  life  with  another  will  be  very  thin. 
There  will  be  little  reality  to  remember  from  the  past 
when  all  the  phantoms  are  forgotten,  but  in  that  small 
residuum  of  reality  will  be  the  faint  beginnings  of  the 
future  life.  Whatever  we  have  known  of  reality  here 
will  help  us  to  recognise  reality  there.  Whatever  we 
have  really  loved  here  will  be  there  to  be  loved  again, 
to  be  recognised  like  the  sound  of  bells  from  an  old  city 


VI  A  DREAM  OF  HEAVEN  235 

church,  like  the  swinging  open  of  gates,  like  the  sunrise 
over  the  mountains,  like  all  those  things  that  are  eternal 
to  us,  that  seem  to  call  us  into  that  place  when  no  more 
time  shall  be  "  but  steadfast  rest  of  all  things  firmly 
stayed  upon  the  pillars  of  eternity." 

For  what  is  the  reality  of  ourselves  to  ourselves  ? 
Not  that  part  of  us  which  is  absorbed  in  the  struggle 
for  life  ;  that  is  merely  the  routine  self,  the  mechanical 
part  of  us.  The  real  self  is  that  which  rises  in  the  very 
process  of  the  struggle  for  life  to  absolute  values.  One 
real  self  is  aware  of  another,  is  aware  of  itself,  only  in 
love.  A  great  part  of  our  relations  with  each  other  is 
merely  mechanical,  a  matter  of  business,  as  we  say  ;  and 
we  wear  business  masks  to  each  other,  hiding  our  reality. 
There  are  some  who  wear  these  masks  always  to  others 
and  even  to  themselves.  They  have  subdued  them- 
selves to  the  conception  of  a  business  universe  ;  they 
despair  of  reality  altogether  ;  they  have  forgotten  their 
own  absolute  values.  Their  relation  with  God  Him- 
self, if  they  had  one,  would  be  merely  a  business 
relation. 

What  is  the  artist  except  a  man  who  does  reveal  the 
real  part  of  himself,  not  to  individual  men  in  some  per- 
sonal intercourse,  but  to  all  the  world  through  his  art  ^ 
In  that  he  is  aware  of  his  real  self  through  love,  he  does 
rise  to  absolute  values.  But  art,  prophetic  of  Heaven 
as  it  is,  is  not  enough,  because  it  is  not  a  personal  inter- 
course between  man  and  man.  Heaven  would  be  the 
fusion  of  the  artist  and  the  saint,  the  real,  not  the 
conventional  saint,  who  is  hero  and  lover  and  poet  in 
one  ;  it  would  be  absolute  values  mastering  all  conduct 
and  turning  it  into  art,  making  it  as  beautiful  as  music. 
In  Heaven  conduct  would  be  music.  But  there  is  not 
enough  material  in  us,  not  enough  even  in  the  artist  or 
the  lover,  to  make  this  music.  We  are  not  real  enough 
to  make  it  with  each  other  ;  the  artist  himself  has  to 
make  it  for  an  ideal  audience  ;  he  cannot  speak  to  the 
man  in  the  street  as  he  speaks  to  an  imagined  world  in 


236  IMMORTALITY  vi 

his  art.  He  has  to  suppose  saints  and  angels  Hstening 
to  him  before  he  can  begin.  Only  at  rare  moments  are 
two  human  beings  at  one  with  each  other  in  their  sense 
of  absolute  values  and  then  they  have  a  glimpse  of 
Heaven  ;  but  it  passes  because  they  cannot  sustain 
the  moment  ;  they  become  unreal  to  each  other  and 
to  themselves.  Heaven  would  be  a  universal  and 
everlasting  fellowship  in  the  enjoyment  of  absolute 
values,  a  concert  of  all  minds,  of  all  thoughts,  and  all 
actions,  like  that  concert  of  the  Cherubim  and  Seraphim 
which  Milton  himself  can  only  express  for  us  in  terms 
of  music.  He  says  trumpets  and  harps  ;  but  he  means 
speech  and  thought  and  action  all  become  music.  He 
must  impoverish  the  content  of  Heaven  so  that  he  may 
represent  it  at  all ;  and  that  is  a  proof  how  far  too  poor 
we  all  are  now  for  the  life  of  Heaven.  There  is  not  in 
us  yet  soul  enough  for  a  life  free  from  the  struggle  for 
life.  We  are  pained  by  the  very  desire  for  a  love  and  a 
fellowship  not  forced  on  us  by  that  struggle.  There  is 
a  warmth  in  the  desires  of  the  flesh  without  which 
we  should  seem  to  ourselves  cold  nothings.  Our  very 
values  seem  to  be  far  away  from  us  when  we  try  to 
obey  them  for  no  reason  except  that  they  are  our  values. 
And  yet  we  know  that  all  our  reality  is  in  those  values ; 
and  our  worst  sorrow  in  life  is  the  knowledge  that  they 
are  not  quite  real. 

Lord,  it  is  my  chief  complaint 
That  my  love  is  weak  and  faint. 

That  is  the  chief  complaint  of  all  men,  if  only  they 
knew  it.  Their  cry  is,  not  to  be  purged,  but  to  be 
enriched. 

And  yet  evil  does  exist  ;  and  in  our  myths  of  Hell 
and  Purgatory  we  insist  that  it  exists,  that  it  is  positive, 
a  hard  fact  in  the  very  nature  of  man  and  not  imposed 
on  him  by  circumstances.  Man  does  really  will  evil  if 
he  wills  anything  ;  and  this  we  know  from  our  experi- 
ence of  ourselves.     Therefore  man  needs  to  be  purged 


VI  A  DREAM  OF  HEAVEN  237 

of  evil  ;  and  the  common  notion  is  that  he  must  be 
purged  of  it  by  punishment.  The  myths  of  Hell 
and  Purgatory  are  not  all  an  expression  of  our  dis- 
like for  each  other,  of  our  bad  temper.  They  are  an 
insistence  on  the  fact  that  evil  does  exist,  and  that  we 
cannot  rid  ourselves  of  it  by  a  mechanical  process  of 
salvation.  The  notion  that  all  men  will  necessarily  be 
saved  is  repulsive  to  us,  not  merely  because  there  are 
some  men  whom  we  do  not  wish  to  be  saved,  but 
because  it  makes  life  and  the  universe  unreal  to  us.  It 
makes  evil  an  illusion  imposed  on  us  by  God  ;  and,  if 
we  believe  in  God  at  all,  we  do  not  believe  that  He 
plays  tricks  with  us. 

Further,  it  is  the  essence  of  reality  for  us  that  it  is 
uncertain.  The  future  is  really  the  future,  the  unknown  ; 
and  our  values  depend  on  the  fact  of  this  uncertainty. 
If  we  were  sure  of  an  escape  from  all  evil  we  should  lose 
our  values  ;  the  future,  no  longer  a  real  future,  would 
become  a  mechanical  process,  and  the  good  would  fade 
out  of  it  with  the  evil.  So  in  all  myths  about  our  rela- 
tion with  God  it  is  implied  that  God  Himself  is  not 
certain  of  our  fate.  There  is  more  joy  in  Heaven  over 
one  sinner  that  repenteth  than  over  ninety-and-nine 
just  men.  There  could  not  be  that  joy  if  there  were 
foreknowledge  ;  it  would  not  be  a  real  joy  but  a  mere 
ritual  of  welcome.  And  if  Heaven  is  real  to  us  it  is 
not  a  mere  ritual,  a  perfect  theatrical  performance  of 
the  same  happiness  for  a  million  and  one  nights,  but  a 
life  utterly  spontaneous  and  improvised,  a  life  free  of 
servitude  to  the  past  or  calculation  about  the  future, 
free  of  looking  before  and  after.  And  that  is  what  we 
mean  by  eternity,  an  everlasting  now,  such  as  we  attain 
to  sometimes  when  we  hear  great  music,  a  now  in  which 
there  is  succession  but  not  that  sense  of  duration  that 
comes  of  weariness  and  anxiety. 

But  here  we  are  cut  off  from  this  freedom  by  evil 
in  us  and  outside  us.  This  evil  exists  and  yet  we 
protest   continually  against   its  existence.      In  fact  evil 


238  IMMORTALITY  vi 

is  to  us  that  which  is  unreal  and  yet  exists.  We  never 
consent  to  it  in  theory,  even  when  we  do  evil  ourselves 
in  practice.  Evil  is  unreal  and  yet  we  are  evil.  That 
can  only  be  because  we  are  unreal  ;  but  all  the  while 
there  is  a  reality  in  us  that  rebels  against  this  unreality. 
If  I  have  been  in  a  rage,  I  say,  when  I  emerge  from  it, 
that  it  was  not  really  I  who  was  in  a  rage.  Yet  the 
rage  existed  ;  and  I  consented  to  its  existence.  So,  in 
the  case  of  all  sin,  the  sin  exists  and  the  sinner  consents 
to  it,  is  for  the  moment  subdued  to  its  unreality.  And 
it  continues  to  exist  in  its  consequences  after  he  has 
withdrawn  his  consent ;  that  is  why  we  are  convinced 
of  the  existence  of  evil  in  spite  of  its  unreality.  It  is 
a  tyranny  of  the  past  over  the  present  and  of  the  present 
over  the  future  ;  and  Heaven  is  to  us  an  escape  from 
this  tyranny  into  the  everlasting  now. 

But  it  is  an  escape  that  we  must  win  for  ourselves 
and  not  attain  to  by  a  mechanical  process,  such  as  death. 
It  is  we  ourselves  that  must  become  completely  real  by 
an  effort  of  our  own  ;  and  yet,  as  we  know  in  this  life, 
we  become  real  only  by  being  aware  of  a  reality  not 
ourselves.  That  reality  exists  and  passionately  desires 
us  to  be  aware  of  it ;  it  appeals  to  us  constantly,  it 
pleads  with  us,  in  all  righteousness,  in  all  truth,  in  all 
beauty.  From  it,  if  we  will  consent  to  open  ourselves 
to  it,  we  get  a  strength  that  is  not  our  own.  It  does 
not  punish  us  ;  we  punish  ourselves  by  ignoring  it  ; 
and,  what  is  worse,  we  punish  each  other  and  are  cut 
off  from  each  other,  and  become  alone  with  ourselves 
and  the  sinful  unreality  of  ourselves.  The  notion  that 
God  punishes  us,  which  taints  our  myths  of  Purgatory 
and  Hell  with  our  own  cruelty,  is  the  result  of  a  failure 
to  conceive  of  God.  All  real  punishment  is  self- 
punishment  ;  it  is  the  real  in  us  rebelling  against  the 
unreal,  and  yet  a  slave  to  it.  But,  if  God  is  real,  He 
is  deliverance  from  the  unreal, "as  the  sun  is  deliverance 
from  darkness ;  and  this  real  causes  us  pain  only 
because  we  refuse  the  deliverance,  refuse  the   love  of 


VI  A  DREAM  OF  HEAVEN  239 

God.  So  there  is  no  punishment  from  God  for  us 
either  in  this  world  or  in  another. 

But,  if  in  that  other  life  God  is  more  instant  to  us, 
more  plainly  revealed  in  a  more  piercing  righteousness, 
truth,  and  beauty,  it  may  be  that  we  shall  suffer  a 
sharper  pain  than  here  from  our  failure  to  rise  to  our 
opportunity.  Beauty  often  makes  us  sad  here,  because 
we  are  ourselves  inadequate  to  it.  There  our  inadequacy 
may  make  the  far  greater  beauty  almost  intolerable  to 
us.  We  shall  have  lost  all  our  comfortable  unrealities, 
our  sense  of  status,  our  vulgarities,  our  formulae,  and 
our  hostile  generalisations  ;  we  shall  have  no  one  to 
encourage  us  in  our  nonsense  ;  and  we  shall  be  face  to 
face,  all  naked  and  bare  as  we  are,  with  that  which  here 
we  call  the  beatific  vision.  We  shall  know  that  it  is 
the  beatific  vision  ;  and  yet  it  will  hurt  us  with  our 
own  inadequacy  to  experience  it.  That  is  what  the 
myth  of  Jupiter  and  Semele  means.  We  are  not  equal 
to  the  contemplation  of  subHmity,  for  here  we  have 
consented  to  admire  an  unreal  sublime  as  if  it  were 
real.  Here  we  are  always  tainting  our  ideas  of  beauty 
with  our  own  egotism.  We  prefer  Solomon  in  all 
his  glory  to  the  lilies  of  the  field,  because  we  should 
like  to  be  Solomons  ourselves.  Only  through  the 
lilies  of  the  field  could  we  prepare  ourselves  for  the 
beatific  vision.  Blessed  are  the  meek  for  they  shall 
inherit  the  earth  ;  blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart  for 
they  shall  see  God. 

But  this  sublimity  of  the  beatific  vision  is  not  a  cold 
sublimity,  as  we  often  suppose  ;  it  is  not  a  sublimity 
emptied  of  all  content  or  absorbed  in  the  enjoyment  of 
itself.  There  is  desire  in  it  calling  to  our  desire,  the 
love  of  God  calling  to  the  love  of  man  ;  and  it  is  the 
urgency  of  the  call  that  will  pain  us — 

Lord,  it  is  my  chief  complaint 
That  my  love  is  weak  and  faint. 

To  fail  in  the  answer  to  this  ineffable  appeal,  to  baffle 


240  IMMORTALITY  vi 

the  desire  of  God  with  the  faintness  of  our  own  desire, 
that  will  be  the  pain  of  Heaven.  Nor  shall  we  know, 
nor  will  God  know,  whether  we  shall  ever  be  able  to 
satisfy  His  desire  with  our  own.  But  at  least  this  pain 
of  ours  will  be  real,  as  his  desire  is  real.  It  will  be 
real  like  the  sorrow  of  a  great  piece  of  music,  not 
unreal  like  the  routine  of  this  life  to  which  we  subdue 
ourselves  even  while  we  rebel  against  it.  It  will  be 
real  like  the  Crucifixion,  which  continues  for  ever  and 
must  continue,  until  man  has  risen  to  an  equality  with 
God  ;  but  that  time  is  hidden  in  the  darkness  of  the 
future,  for  it  rests  with  man  himself  whether  he  shall 
so  rise.  But  all  the  beauty  and  glory  of  the  universe 
is  in  the  desire  of  God  for  man  to  be  equal  with  Him- 
self, and  in  the  answering  desire  of  man.  And  that 
also  is  the  beauty  and  glory  of  heaven,  more  intense 
than  on  earth  because  there  man  is  closer  to  God. 


VII 
THE  GOOD  &  EVIL  IN  SPIRITUALISM 

BY    THE    AUTHOR    OF 

"PRO  CHRISTO  ET  ECCLESIA" 

(lily  dougall) 

author  of 

"christus  futurus,"  "voluntas  dei," 

"the  christian  doctrink  of  health,"  etc, 

ALSO    OF 
"beggars    all,"    "the    ZEITGEIST,"  "  the    MORMON    PROPHET,"    ETC. 


241 


SYNOPSIS 

TAGF, 

Spiritualism  and  Psychical  Research  .  .  .       244 

Truth  underlying  the  popular  dislike  of  the  occult. 
Distinction  between  Spiritualism  as  a  religion  and  scientific  in- 
vestigations of  psychic  phenomena. 

Telepathy  .......       247 

{a)  Telepathy  of  ordinary  sympathetic  intercourse. 

{b)    Crowd  emotion. 

(c)    Ascendancy  of  one  mind  over  another  in  or  after  hypnosis. 

{J)  The  telepathic  impression  received  by  B  from  A  and  con- 
veyed later  to  C,  a  medium. 

(e)  Crucial  test  in  Mr.  A.  J.  Hill's  Psychical  Investigations ; 
also  incident  from  Raymond. 

Objections  to  the  Spiritualist  Hypothesis  .  .       253 

First  objection  :  until  we  know  the  limits  of  telepathy  between 
the  living,  we  cannot  assume  it  insufficient  to  explain  medium- 
istic  phenomena. 

{a)   Fortune-telling  gipsy. 

(b)  Mrs.  Piper  and  the  Conner  case, 
(f)    Medium's  dramatic  interpretations. 

Second    objection  :    communications    from    the    next    world    by 
automatic  writing  always  reflect  the  thought  ot  the  medium's 
environment. 
Third  objection  :  the  dream  consciousness  of  the  medium  vitiates 
the  telepathic  message. 
{a)  Dream  life  dramatic. 
{b)    Medium's  "control,"  probably   a  personality  of  dream 

life, 
(f)    Air  castles. 
Fourth  objection  :  clairvoyance  is  a  possible  source  of  knowledge. 
{a)  Dowser's  second  sight. 
{b)    Hypnotic  second  sight. 

[c)  The  Willett  Scrip — the  "Ear  of  Dionysius." 
{d)   The  photograph  incident  in  Raymond. 

Fifth  objection  :  messages  are  of  flippant  type. 

[a)  Sir  W.  R.  Barrett's  "  tie-pin  case." 

[b)  The  "Ear  of  Dionysius." 

Sixth  objection  :  the  difficulties  in  believing  in  verbal  inspiration. 
{a)   If    God's    revelation     were    not    also    man's    discovery 
man's  mental  powers  would  not  be  educed. 

242 


VII    GOOD  AND  EVIL  IN  SPIRITUALISM  243 

PACE 

(A)    History  shows  that   spirits  from  the  other  worlds  have 

not    imparted    "ready-made"    knowledge    to     man. 

"  Revelations  "  of  mystics  and  seers  are  not  in  advance 

of  their  time. 
{c)    The    highest    prophetic   writings   show    inference   from 

judgment  of  ascertained  fact. 

Ghosts        ........       278 

Their  probable  explanation. 

The  Anti-social  Sin  of  Credulity       ....       279 

(a)  The    credulity    of    spiritists    hinders    investigation    of 

veridic  phenomena. 

(b)  The  credulity  of  the  orthodox  concerning  demonology 

induces  foolish  fears. 

The  Gains  of  Psychical  Investigation  .  .  .       284 

{a)  They  furnish  proof  of  telepathy. 

(b)   They    witness    to    communion,    as    distinguished    from 
communication,  with  discarnate  spirits. 

Conclusion  .  .  .  .  .  -  .291 


VII 
THE  GOOD  AND  EVIL  IN  SPIRITUALISM 

Spiritualism  and  Psychical  Research 

Most  of  us  dislike  anything  that  may  be  called  occult. 
The  temperament  of  the  average  Anglo-Saxon  is  by 
nature  unfortunately  not  characterised  by  scientific 
patience,  and  very  many  are  too  apt  to  think  that  a 
scientific  temper  consists  in  cutting  the  Gordian  knot 
of  some  difficult  question  depending  on  evidence  with 
the  sword  of  preconceived,  anti-superstitious  opinion. 
The  expressions,  "  I  believe,"  "  I  am  profoundly  con- 
,'  vinced,"  "  Every  sane  man  believes,"  or  "  No  sane 
'  man  believes,"  are  constantly  used  among  us  as  a  means 
of  shirking  the  discomfort  of  suspended  judgment  about 
.  matters  not  yet  adequately  investigated.  Touching  all 
that  field  of  thought  and  emotion  commonly  called 
"  superstition "  this  attitude  of  mind  has  a  certain 
working  value,  because  it  is  sometimes  exercised  in 
genuine  mistake  for  something  true  to  the  best  in  man 
and  truly  scientific.  For  example,  if  the  average 
Anglo-Saxon  were  to  say  about  spiritualistic  phenomena, 
"  I  am  quite  sure  that  at  the  heart  of  the  universe  lie 
order  and  reason  and  health — that  God  is  the  God  of 
order  and  reason  and  health  in  all  human  affairs — and 
therefore  I  can,  with  a  light  heart,  leave  the  investigation 
of  alleged  spiritualistic  phenomena  to  expert  scientists  ; 
I  am  quite  certain  that  whatever  turns  out  to  be  true 
will  also  prove  useful  to  man  and  honouring  to  God,"  he 

244 


VII    GOOD  AND  EVIL  IN  SPIRITUALISM  245 

would  really  say  what  in  intention  lies  behind  much 
futile  asseveration  of  scorn  and  unbelief. 

It  is  important  to  distinguish  clearly  between 
scientific  investigations  such  as  those  undertaken 
by  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research  (which,  as 
regards  attempted  communication  with  the  dead,  is 
carried  on  by  mediumistic  methods)  and  the  religious 
or  quasi  -  religious  movement  which  goes  by  the 
name  of  Spiritualism  in  England  and  America  and  of 
Spiritism  on  the  Continent.  This  distinction  must  be 
kept  in  mind,  and  with  it  one  or  two  points  which  bear 
upon  the  literature  of  the  subject,  (a)  It  does  not  follow, 
because  a  man  or  woman  has  won  a  reputation  in  some 
department — say  chemistry  or  electricity — that  either 
their  repudiation  or  their  investigation  of  occult  matters 
will  be  scientific.  Many  people  keep  their  science,  just 
as  many  others  keep  their  religion,  in  water-tight  com- 
partments. When  this  infirmity  of  great  minds  is 
grasped  we  shall  no  longer  be  confused  by  the  fact  that 
Professor  This,  who  has  won  real  distinction  in  some 
special  department  of  science,  disbelieves  in  the  possi- 
bility of  communicating  with  the  spirits  of  the  dead, 
and  Professor  That,  equally  distinguished,  daily  obtains 
such  communications.  (h)  Another  point  to  be  re- 
membered is  that  because  a  man,  even  a  scientific  man, 
belongs  to  the  S.P.R.  it  does  not  follow  that  he  works 
with  the  temper  and  caution  which  have  characterised 
the  official  work  of  the  Society.  (c)  Yet  a  further 
point  is  that,  although  certain  prominent  men  who 
profess  Spiritualism  in  the  religious  sense  are  also 
members  of  the  S.P.R.,  that  is  no  reason  why  we 
should  confuse  Spiritualism  with  the  official  work  of 
this  Society. 

There  are  very  few  who  have  ever  taken  the 
trouble  to  read  even  an  article  giving  an  authentic 
rhume  of  conclusions  arrived  at  by  reliable  people  who 
have  for  years  followed  the  investigations  of  the  Society 
for  Psychical  Research.     As  a  matter  of  fact,  this  Society, 


246  IMMORTALITY  vii 

which  numbers  among  its  members  many  illustrious 
names,  has  not  seen  its  way  to  put  forth  as  yet  any  con- 
clusion with  regard  to  the  alleged  phenomena  of  Spiritual- 
ism further  than  the  following  :  it  has  proved  many 
mediums  to  be  fraudulent,  but  in  cases  where  all 
suspicion  of  fraud  has  been  eliminated  by  the  most 
careful  observation,  the  most  serious  members  of  the 
Society  admit  that  there  is  evidence,  either  of  non- 
sensuous — i.e.  telepathic — communications  between  the 
minds  of  living  people  to  a  degree  not  commonly 
admitted,  or  of  direction  by  some  discarnate  spirit.  I 
believe  that  it  is  foolish  to  ignore  or  discard  the 
evidence.  In  face  of  it  it  is  futile  to  say  one  day  that 
we  do  not  believe  in  communication  with  discarnate 
spirits,  and  the  next  day  that  we  do  not  believe  in  what 
is  called  "  telepathy "  ;  the  results  of  the  scientific 
investigations  of  the  S.P.R.  are  such  that  to  disbelieve 
both  these  alternatives  is  as  unreasonable  as  to  say  that 
we  do  not  believe  in  any  other  of  the  common  working 
hypotheses  of  life  which  are  accepted  only  on  cumulative 
evidence. 

What  is  our  object  in  thus  doggedly  disbelieving 
that  mind  may  act  independently  of  the  body  ?  There 
is  a  purpose  in  it.  Usually  we  want  to  preserve  our 
friends  and  our  families  from  contact  with  what  appears 
to  us  an  unhealthy  interest.  But  if  our  friends  and 
families  sooner  or  later  find  that  they  are  faced  with 
inexplicable  facts  that  they  cannot  disbelieve,  they  will 
set  aside  us  and  our  judgments  as  valueless.  If  we 
show  credulity  in  making  negative  assertions  on  in- 
sufficient evidence,  they  will  show  similar  credulity  in 
accepting  deleterious  superstitions.  It  is  true  that 
superstition  inhibits  the  best  activities  of  the  soul  by 
dwarfing  the  love  of  truth,  but  prejudice  also  dwarfs  it. 
If  any  well-attested  fact  is  subversive  of  our  traditional 
beliefs,  instead  of  getting  angry  or  scornful,  let  us 
consider  it  patiently.  If  it  be  true  we  may  be  quite 
sure  that  it  has  been  true  from  the  foundation  of  the 


VII    GOOD  AND  EVIL  IN  SPIRITUALISM  247 

world.  If  true,  it  has  been  awaiting  our  discovery,  and 
when  further  explored  and  assimilated  to  all  the  rest  of 
our  knowledge,  we  shall  find  that  it  is  something  that 
is  part  of  the  warp  and  woof  of  our  familiar  life,  just 
as  much  a  part  of  all  our  safe  and  kindly  intercourse 
with  the  world  of  sense  as  any  other  part  of  experience. 

In  endeavouring  to  make  a  dispassionate  examina- 
tion of  Spiritualism  I  am  going  to  take  my  stand  upon 
what  I  believe  to  be  proved  by  the  evidence  furnished 
by  the  S.P.R.  There  are  "mediums"  who  are  honest 
and  entirely  convinced  that  the  words  they  give  forth 
by  their  various  automatisms  are  inspired  by  some 
discarnate  spirit.  This  they  believe  on  the  strength  of 
the  fact  that  when  their  talk  or  their  automatic  script 
or  their  visions  have  been  analysed,  they  are  found  to 
contain  information  certainly  not  consciously  acquired 
through  their  physical  senses. 

I  propose  first  to  show  that  the  hypothesis  of  tele- 
pathy between  the  living  is  the  more  probable  explana- 
tion of  the  super-physical  knowledge  of  these  mediums. 
Afterwards,  I  hope  to  show  that  even  though  their 
claims  to  hold  verbal  communications  with  the  dead 
are  not  substantiated,  there  may  still  be  an  important 
element  of  truth  in  spiritualistic  experience. 

Telepathy 

In  small  ways  we  are  all  quite  familiar  with  telepathy, 
although  we  have  not  called  it  by  that  name.  Like  "  Le 
Bourgeois  gentilhomme,"  who  talked  prose  all  his  life 
without  knowing  it,  we  shall  find  that  we  have  been 
telepathic  and  ignored  it.  To  begin  with,  most  little 
children  know  that  "mother"  can  "understand  with 
half  a  word  "  what  it  would  be  very  difficult  to  explain 
to  any  one  else.  The  trouble  or  joy  in  question  may 
have  occurred  quite  away  from  the  mother,  yet  how 
quickly  she  knows  all  about  it  from  a  few  incoherent 
words.     When  we  are  grown-up  we  all  know  the  same 

It:. 


248  IMMORTALITY  vii 

thing  to  be  true  between  us  and  our  best  friends  ;  indeed, 
it  is  this  quickness  of  understanding,  this  ability  to 
dispense  with  endless  verbal  explanations,  which  makes 
friendship.  Now,  if  we  examine  this  phenomenon,  we 
know  that  neither  the  mother  nor  the  friend  could  say 
in  so  many  words,  before  we  speak,  what  we  have  to 
tell  them;  but  neither  can  the  *' medium"  do  this, 
unless  she  throw  herself  into  some  abnormal  condition 
in  which  what  is  called  for  convenience  "  the  subcon- 
scious mind "  works  automatically.  It  is  a  quite 
tenable  hypothesis  that  her  subconscious  mind  is,  at  all 
times,  taking  photographs,  as  it  were,  of  the  minds  of 
those  with  whom  she  comes  in  contact.  Then  the  auto- 
matic power  would  appear  to  constitute  merely  the 
developing  process  applied  to  the  photographs  taken, 
so  that  they  may  be  described  by  the  "medium"  and 
others.  On  the  hypothesis  that  the  mother  or  friend 
knows  subconsciously  very  much  of  what  goes  on  in 
the  lives  of  those  they  love,  such  knowledge  would  lie, 
like  an  undeveloped  photograph,  until  some  demand  upon 
sympathy  so  far  developed  it  that  the  conscious  mind 
became  able  dimly  to  trace  its  outline.  In  other  words, 
a  demand  on  sympathy  makes  the  sympathetic  person 
mediumistic  to  a  degree  perfectly  healthy  and  normal, 
so  that  the  emerging  subconscious  knowledge  meets 
half-way  the  halting  verbal  deliverance  of  the  other 
who  seeks  sympathy.  The  old  proverb,  "  It  is  love 
that  makes  the  world  go  round,"  may  thus  be  trans- 
lated into  the  assertion  that  without  the  emotion  that 
causes  this  sympathetic  quickness  of  understanding, 
outrunning  and  transcending  speech,  human  society 
would  not  hold  together.  We  have  too  little,  not  too 
much,  of  such  understanding,  and  the  telepathic  law 
lying  at  the  bottom  of  it  may  be  awaiting  discovery  by 
those  who  investigate  spiritualistic  phenomena.  Such 
a  discovery  would  add  to  our  knowledge,  and  might 
help  us  to  value  more  truly  the  fact  explained  :  it 
would  not  alter  an  age-long  fact. 


VII    GOOD  AND  EVIL  IN  SPIRITUALISM  249 

There  are  other  well-known  social  phenomena  which 
may  prove  explicable  also  by  the  power  of  the  human 
mind  to  take  subconscious  photographs  of  other  minds, 
photographs  which  sometimes,  under  stress  of  emotion 
or  public  excitement,  seem  to  start,  with  outline  more  or 
less  dim,  into  consciousness.  Among  such  phenomena 
may  be  mentioned  the  spread  of  rumour,  which  pro- 
verbially flies  in  front  of  any  messenger  ;  the  corporate 
manias  which  from  time  to  time  afl^ect  societies,  and 
were  just  as  common  before  the  existence  of  daily  news- 
papers as  they  are  now  ;  the  power  of  panic  to  affect 
those  having  no  knowledge  of  the  cause  of  danger  ;  and 
other  more  common  and  well-attested  social  facts. 

Another  fact  germane  to  our  hypothesis  is  the 
mental  ascendancy  gained  over  an  hypnotic  subject 
by  the  man  who  habitually  hypnotises  him.  This 
ascendancy,  although  absurdly  and  deplorably  exagger- 
ated in  fiction  and  journalism,  has  extended  in  some 
well  -  authenticated  cases  to  cover  absent  suggestion, 
i.e.  the  suggestion  that  passes  from  one  to  another 
without  physical  presence  or  communication.  In  such 
cases  we  get,  first,  the  susceptibility  of  the  subject  to 
oral  suggestion  during  hypnotic  sleep  ;  second,  a  prone- 
ness  to  the  mental  suggestion  of  the  hypnotiser  when 
present  during  that  sleep  ;  third,  the  mental  suggestion 
operating  in  absence.^ 

Thus  we  see  that  the  telepathy  with  which  we 
propose  to  explain  the  super  -  sensuous  knowledge  of 
mediums  is  allied  to  phenomena  with  which  we  are 
all  familiar.  Reverting  to  the  stages  in  hypnotic 
suggestion  just  noted,  it  is  the  second  that  is  commonly 
reproduced  in  a  private  seance  with  a  medium,  when 
the  medium,  by  some  process  of  self-hypnotism,  goes 
into  sleep  or  trance,  and  so  passes  under  the  influence 
of  the  "  sitter's  "  mind  as  to  interpret  with  variations 
what  he  or  she  already  knows.  The  investigators  of 
the  S.P.R.   all  admit  that  when  a  medium  in   trance- 

^   See  Studies  in  Psychical  Research,  by  F.  Podmorc,  pp.  219  ft". 


250  IMMORTALITY  vii 

speech  or  automatic  writing  reproduces  in  any  form 
any  idea  in  the  mind  of  some  one  present  during  the 
trance,  there  is  no  evidence  of  anything  but  telepathic 
communication  between  the  two.  The  automatic  con- 
dition is  supposed  to  make  the  mind  mediumistic  or 
pecuHarly  susceptible  to  telepathic  impressions. 

The  following  story,  taken  in  connection  with  such 
facts  of  common  life  as  are  noted  in  the  previous 
pages,  seems  to  suggest  that  the  automatic  condition 
is  peculiar,  not  in  receiving  telepathic  impressions,  but 
in  developing  them  in  consciousness.  I  believe  the 
story,  told  me  recently  by  a  friend,  to  be  true  as  I 
give  it,  although  when  told  to  me  it  appeared  more  eerie 
and  quite  as  incredible  as  any  other  story  of  ghostly 
happenings.  My  friend,  whom  we  will  call  "  Miss  A," 
received  a  visit  from  an  acquaintance  we  will  call 
"  Mrs.  B."  The  mind  of  Miss  A  was  at  the  time 
absorbed  by  the  details  of  some  striking  events  which 
had  lately  occurred  in  her  own  circle,  but  she  did  not 
mention  these  events  to  Mrs.  B,  who  was  not  an  inti- 
mate friend,  and  was  not  personally  concerned  in  them. 
In  the  course  of  conversation  Mrs.  B  said  she  was  on 
her  way  to  keep  an  appointment  with  a  visualising 
medium.  Asked  why  she  made  such  appointments, 
she  replied  that  this  medium  had  the  power  to  see  as 
in  a  vision  the  most  important  factors  of  her  life,  and 
in  that  way  to  give  her  wise  advice  as  to  how  to  act  in 
the  present  and  immediate  future.  Mrs.  B  took  her 
leave,  but  in  a  short  time  unexpectedly  called  again  on 
her  way  home,  to  tell  Miss  A  that  her  visit  to  the 
medium  this  time  had  been  disappointing  and  useless. 
The  medium  had  had  and  described  a  series  of  visions, 
but  nothing  in  them  was  recognised  by  Mrs.  B,  and 
neither  she  nor  the  medium  could  make  any  sense  out 
of  the  visions.  Out  of  politeness,  Miss  A  enquired 
their  nature,  and  was  amazed  when  Mrs.  B's  recital 
set  forth  with  considerable  detail  the  events  which  had 
absorbed  her  own  mind  during  Mrs.  B's  visit  before  she 


VII    GOOD  AND  EVIL  IN  SPIRITUALISM  251 

went  on  to  the  seance.  One  curious  detail  was  added  : 
the  visions  had  been  ushered  into  the  medium's  plane 
of  vision  by  the  figure  of  a  Chinaman  in  fine  apparel. 
Now,  the  odd  thing  was,  that  that  very  morning  Miss 
A  had  happened  to  pass  the  Chinese  Embassy  in  London, 
and  had  seen  two  gorgeously  attired  Chinamen  coming 
down  the  steps,  whose  dress  had  greatly  pleased  her 
artistic  sense.  These  Chinamen  had,  of  course,  nothing 
to  do  with  the  other  events  over  which  in  those  days 
her  mind  was  brooding. 

We  may  describe  what  happened — figuratively — by 
saying  that  Mrs.  B's  subconscious  mind  had  carried 
away  what  might  be  called  a  photograph  of  Miss  A's 
thought  as  they  sat  together,  a  photograph  that  did  not 
emerge  into  Mrs.  B's  consciousness,  but  was  perceived, 
developed,  and  described  by  the  medium's  subconscious 
mind.  The  other  possible  hypothesis — that  the  medium 
visualised  Miss  A's  thought  direct — would  seem  to 
deny  any  limit  at  all  to  the  medium's  power  of  thought- 
reading,  as  in  this  case  he  had  never  seen  or  heard  of 
Miss  A. 

In  the  light  of  this  incident  I  should  like  to  analyse 
the  one  given  in  Mr.  J.  Arthur  Hill's  Psychical  In- 
vestigation and  headed  "A  Crucial  Test."  Mr.  Hill 
says  (p.  172)  :  "I  give,  below,  a  recent  case  in  which 
the  theory  of  telepathy  from  the  sitter  is  excluded." 
He  then  describes  how  his  medium,  Mr.  A.  Wilkinson, 
had  seen  a  woman  called  Ruth  Robertshaw. 

"  A.  W.  Did  you  know  somebody  called  Ruth 
Robertshaw  .^ 

''J.  A.  H.    I  don't  remember  anybody  at  the  moment. 

^'  A.  IV.  ...  I  saw  her  perfectly.  A  crescent- 
shaped  light  was  over  her  head,  and  her  face  was 
illumined.  She  would  be  inclined  to  be  rather  pious  in 
her  way  (quite  meaningless  to  me).  This  woman 
Ruth  is  no  relation  to  you,  I  think.  There  was  a 
gentleman  belonging  to  her,  called  Jacob.  I  think  he 
would  be  her  husband.     Whoever  he  was,  he  was  older 


252  IMMORTALITY  vii 

than  her.  He  would  be  seventy-three.  She  would 
be  about  ten  years  younger.   .   .   . 

"  All  this  conveyed  nothing  to  me.  But  previous 
experience  (see  pp.  167-169,  etc.)  warned  me  not  to 
dismiss  it  hastily,  and  it  occurred  to  me  to  write  to  the 
last  visitor  I  had  had,  three  days  before — a  Miss  North 
— in  case  the  two  people  belonged  to  her,  though  I 
thought  it  unlikely,  for  I  knew  of  no  Robertshaws 
among  her  relatives  or  friends. 

"  Her  reply  was  :  '  You  make  me  feel  creepy.  Ruth 
Robertshaw  was  my  father's  cousin  —  one  of  the 
sweetest  women  that  ever  lived.  She  was  a  beautiful 
old  lady  when  I  knew  her,  and  good.  Jacob  was  her 
husband.     The  ages  given  are  just  about  right.'  " 

Now  the  likeness  between  this  case  and  the  previous 
case  of  "  Miss  A  "  and  "  Mrs.  B  "  is  obvious.  They 
differ  in  that  three  days  elapsed  between  Miss  North's 
visit  to  Mr.  Hill  and  his  visit  to  the  medium,  while,  too, 
we  have  no  proof  that  during  her  visit  to  Mr.  Hill 
Miss  North's  mind  was  actively  occupied  with  the 
Robertshaws.  Otherwise  the  likeness  between  the  two 
cases  is  striking.  Even  apart  from  the  Chinaman,  we 
must  rule  out  any  interference  of  a  discarnate  spirit 
in  the  case  of  "  Miss  A  "  and  "  Mrs.  B  "  ;  and  the 
addition  of  the  living  Chinaman  makes  such  an 
hypothesis  absurd.  So  we  must  disagree  with  Mr. 
Hill  when  he  says  (p.  173)  :  "To  me  (this  case 
of  Miss  North)  is  conclusive  of  something  beyond 
either  normal  knowledge  on  the  medium's  part  or 
telepathy  from  me  ;  and  indeed  I  can  find  no  satisfactory 
explanation  except  the  spiritistic  one.  Apparently 
those  on  the  other  side  are  aware  of  the  movements 
of  those  in  whom  they  are  still  interested  down  here, 
and  are  in  some  sense  '  with '  them,  even  to  the  extent 
of  being  perceivable  by  a  sensitive  through  an  after- 
influence  left  some  days  before."  Mr.  Hill  suggests,  as 
the  only  mind-reading  theory  that  might  be  advanced, 
that  this  "after-influence"  established  a  rapport  by  which 


VII    GOOD  AND  EVIL  IN  SPIRITUALISM   253 

Wilkinson  was  able  to  read  the  mind  of  the  distant 
and  unknown  Miss  North,  and  dismisses  the  idea  as 
credulous  and  superstitious.  He  does  not  consider 
the  explanation  my  story  suggests.  It  will  be  noted, 
however,  that  he  attributes  to  Miss  North  the  know- 
ledge which  the  medium,  Wilkinson,  communicated, 
and  he  regards  the  spirits  as  perceivable  by  the  medium 
because  they  were  "  with "  Miss  North  some  days 
before  and  left  an  "  after-influence."  In  the  case  of 
"  Miss  A  "  and  "  Mrs.  B  "  the  after-influence  perceived 
by  the  medium.,  though  left  some  hours  before,  was 
not  a  spirit,  but  obviously  a  telepathic  impression,  and 
the  persistence  of  such  an  impression  for  three  days 
in  Mr.  Hill's  mind  is  not  a  priori  impossible.  The 
difference  of  three  hours  in  the  one  case  and  three 
days  in  the  other  is  hardly  a  proof  that  a  discarnate 
spirit  was  present  in  the  latter  case  and  not  in  the 
former.^ 

Apart  from  my  story,  there  is  abundant  evidence 
that  certain  honest  mediums  have  shown  an  extra- 
ordinary knowledge,  not  only  of  events  present  to 
the  minds  of  enquirers  who  went  to  them  in  a  receptive 
mood,  but  of  events  that  such  enquirers  were  convinced 
they  did  not  know,  but  which  people  connected 
with  them  did  know.  An  instance  of  this  occurs  in 
Raymond  (pp.  147-148),  where  the  medium  gives  the 
name  "  Norman "  as  a  nickname  given  to  Raymond 
by  his  brothers,  a  nickname  which  the  sitters  at  the 
seance  did  not  know. 


Objections  to  the  Spiritualist   Hypothesis 

•  We  may  now  proceed  to  state  the  principal  objec- 
tions to  the  belief  in  detailed  verbal  communication 
from  discarnate  spirits  which  Spiritualism  maintains. 

'  It  occurs  to  me  as  possible  that  the  incident  may  throw  light  on  the  case 
of  the  photograph  in  Sir  Oliver  Lodge's  Raymond,  discussed  below,  pp.  268-269. 


254  IMMORTALITY  vii 

(i)   Telepathy  usually  an  Adequate  Explanation 

The  first  objection  has  been  already  indicated.  It 
is  that  as  yet  we  do  not  know  the  limits  of  the  sub- 
conscious mind's  power  of  access  to  other  minds  on 
earth,  nor  the  length  of  time  an  impression  thus  made 
may  persist  before  it  is  brought  into  consciousness. 
Because  thought-transference  or  telepathy  certainly 
accounts  for  so  large  a  part  of  so-called  "  communica- 
tions," we  are  forbidden  by  the  Law  of  Parsimony  to 
seek  another  cause  till  we  are  assured  that  this  or 
some  other  known  cause  will  not  serve.  While 
our  knowledge  of  the  limits  and  working  of  tele- 
pathy remains  imperfect,  this  is  not  a  final  objection, 
but  it  has  much  greater  weight  than  convinced 
spiritualists  will  commonly  allow.  They  urge  that  the 
explanation  of  messages  as  obtained  by  telepathy  from 
the  living  is  often  much  more  complex  or  roundabout 
than  the  spiritualist  explanation,  and  this  argument 
sounds  plausible.  But  science  has  often  found  that 
what  seems  the  simpler  explanation  is  not  the  true 
one.  Many  people  used  to  be  indignant  at  the 
suggestion  that  the  common  cold  is  caused  by  an 
infectious  microbe.  They  felt  chill  ;  they  developed 
a  cold ;  why  drag  in  the  complicated  theory  of  the 
catarrhal  microbe }  Yet  the  more  complex  theory  was 
the  true  one.  And  in  every  department  of  research 
science  has  had  to  replace  simple  and  obvious  explana- 
tions which  were  false  by  the  more  complex  truth. 

In  our  present  problem  we  must  remember  that 
telepathy  from  the  living  is  proved  to  be  the  source 
of  part  of  the  information  imparted  by  mediums. 
No  one  who  has  studied  the  subject  will  deny  this.  I 
once  had  an  interview  with  a  fortune-telling  gipsy 
whose  ways  were  obviously  mediumistic.  She  told  me 
that  I  would  receive  a  letter  in  the  first  week  of  the 
new  year  containing  a  hundred  pounds.  1  was  much 
impressed,  because  I  expected  this  amount  at  exactly  that 


VII    GOOD  AND  EVIL  IN  SPIRITUALISM   255 

time,  believing  the  money  was  then  due  from  my  publisher. 
When  the  time  came  I  discovered  that  the  publisher 
did  not  pay  till  six  months  after  the  year's  accounts 
were  rendered,  and  that  then  ten  pounds  of  it  would  go 
to  the  literary  agent  !  The  gipsy's  information  was 
obviously  a  reflection  of  my  own  mind  at  the  time 
we  met, 

A  notable  instance  of  the  same  sort  is  given  in 
an  account  by  Mrs.  Henry  Sidgwick  of  a  case  in  which 
Mrs.  Piper  gave  false  information,  part  of  which  was 
certainly  derived  from  the  minds  of  the  enquirers 
concerned.  Briefly  the  facts  are  as  follows.  Conner, 
a  young  citizen  of  the  United  States,  went  to  the  city 
of  Mexico  to  work  as  electrician  in  a  theatre,  but 
was  soon  taken  ill  with  typhoid  fever,  removed  to 
the  American  hospital,  and  died  in  the  spring  of  1895. 
An  official  account  of  his  death  and  burial  was  sent 
by  the  American  Consul  -  General  to  his  father  in 
Vermont.  A  few  months  later  his  father  had  a  vivid 
dream  in  which  his  son  appeared  to  him  and  said  he 
was  not  dead,  but  alive,  and  held  a  captive  in  Mexico. 
Conner's  friends  consulted  Mrs.  Piper,  who  in  trance 
confirmed  the  dream.  Her  controls  claimed  that  he 
had  been  taken  from  the  hospital  at  night  by  the  "  South 
road  "  and  was  being  held  for  ransom  or  some  other 
dark  purpose,  and  that  the  body  of  another  patient  who 
had  died  was  dressed  in  his  clothes  and  buried  as  Conner, 
Thus  fortified  in  their  suspicions  Conner's  friends  sent 
a  Mr.  Dodge,  who  knew  him  well,  to  Mexico  to  look 
for  him.  Ultimately  he  got  leave  to  exhume  the  body, 
now  buried  about  a  year,  and  "  was  pretty  well 
convinced  at  the  time  that "  it  was  that  of  Conner. 
Mrs.  Piper's  controls,  on  the  contrary,  continued  to 
assert  that  he  had  been  taken  along  a  South  road — to 
a  country  house,  said  one  ;  to  Tuxedo,  said  another. 
Mrs.  Piper  was  ill  for  a  good  part  of  1896,  but  in 
October  of  that  year  Mr.  Dodge  had  another  sitting 
with   her,   in   which  her  control  gave  a   lurid  account 


256  IMMORTALITY  vii 

of  Conner's  condition  at  or  near  Puebla  in  some  sort 
of  lunatic  asylum.  The  friends  again  started  in 
search,  directed  by  telegraphed  instructions  given  in 
trance  by  Mrs.  Piper.  The  directions  as  to  his  where- 
abouts were  precise,  but  they  were  always  incorrect 
or  inadequate,  and  the  seekers  returned  puzzled 
and  disappointed.  Ultimately  the  gentleman  who 
published  the  story  satisfied  himself  that  the  descrip- 
tions were  misleading,  that  Conner  could  not  have 
been  confined  as  described  without  the  knowledge  of 
the  authorities,  and,  moreover,  that  there  could  have 
been  no  motive  for  kidnapping  him.  He  also  found 
the  nurse  who  had  actually  seen  Conner  die,  and,  in 
fine,  set  the  whole  question  at  rest.  As  to  Mrs.  Piper, 
it  would  seem  that  "  the  enquiry  set  her  subliminal 
imagination  to  work."  Mrs.  Sidgwick  says,  "  She  got 
some  things  right  according  to  the  ideas  of  Mr.  Dodge 
— perhaps  in  part  by  thought-transference  from  him, 
and,  once  started  on  the  wrong  line,  embroidered  on 
it  further."  One  incident  at  least  seems  a  remarkable 
instance  of  telepathy  from  the  sitter.  A  certain 
landscape  view,  as  seen  by  Mr.  Dodge  at  Puebla, 
was  in  his  presence  vividly  and  accurately  described 
by  the  controls.^ 

It  appears  to  me  that  in  such  a  case  it  is  probable 
that  what  Mrs.  Sidgwick  calls  Mrs.  Piper's  "  subliminal 
imagination "  gave  a  dramatic  representation  of  the 
uneasy  fears  of  Conner's  friends.  From  visits  of 
my  own  to  mediums  and  from  what  others  tell  me, 
I  have  formed  the  opinion  that  all  that  is  commonly 
obtained  from  a  professional  medium  is,  at  best, 
a  dramatic  reproduction  of  what  is,  consciously  or 
unconsciously,  in  the  sitter's  mind.  By  a  dramatic 
reproduction  I  mean  that  the  medium  sees  the  know- 
ledge imaginatively  as  in  a  dream  ;  his  or  her  statement 
comes  in  an  unexpected  form,  and  therefore  see7ns  fresh. 
I  once  asked  a  medium  for  my  mother's  name,  and  was 

'   S.P.R.  yournal,  vol.  xvii.  No.  cccxxxiii. 


VII    GOOD  AND  EVIL  IN  SPIRITUALISM  257 

told  that  the  name,  which  she  gave  correctly,  was 
"  written  in  fire  across  the  table  "  ! 

The  source  of  the  knowledge  is  telepathic  ;  the  form 
is  given  by  the  dream  imagery  discussed  later.  That 
some  telepathic  impression  from  the  enquirer  is  the 
most  frequent  source  of  the  medium's  knowledge  is 
recognised  by  many  investigators  of  the  S.P.R.  Sir 
O.  Lodge  says  :  "  The  possibility  of  what  may  be  called 
normal  telepathy,  or  unconscious  mind -reading  from 
survivors,  raises  hesitation  about  accepting  messages  as 
irrefragable  evidence  of  persistent  personal  existence."  ^ 

Even  accepting  as  something  seriously  to  be  reckoned 
with,  the  evidence  offered  by  the  S.P.R. ,  we  clearly  need 
much  more  investigation  before  we  can  be  assured  that 
mediums  possess  any  spiritistic  source  of  information. 
But  the  belief  of  the  ordinary  spiritualist  runs  far  in 
advance  of  anything  for  which  the  annals  of  the  S.P.R. 
offer  evidence.  A  notable  development  of  spiritualism 
is  the  publication  of  whole  books  purporting  to  have 
been  dictated  by  discarnate  spirits  to  mediums  who  took 
down  these  dictations  in  automatic  script.  By  "  auto- 
matic script "  is  meant  writing  that  is  done  when  the 
mind  of  the  writer  is  either  entranced  or  diverted  from 
the  operation  of  writing  ;  the  writer  does  not  look  at  the 
paper  and  professes  to  be  ignorant  of  what  is  written. 

(2)  Automatic  tVriting 

The  second  objection  concerns  such  '*  inspired " 
writing  of  the  spiritualists,  much  of  which  is  now  pub- 
lished and  has  great  currency.  While  it  is  impossible 
to  assert  of  any  one  passage  from  published  automatic 
writings  that  it  certainly  represents  the  earthly  environ- 
ment of  the  medium,  and  not  the  mind  of  any  discarnate 
spirit,  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  when  we  get  whole  books 
of  automatic  writing  supposed  to  be  inspired  by  some 
individual  from  the  next  life,  we  find  that  on  the  whole 

'   Raymond,  p.  346. 


258  IMMORTALITY  vii 

we  have  nothing  that  does  not  correspond  with  the 
intellectual,  moral,  and  religious  environment  of  the 
medium.  Beside  the  automatic  writings  reported  by 
the  S.P.R.  I  may  refer  to  three  such  books  of  whose 
origin  I  happen  to  know  something.  One  was  written 
in  the  house  of  a  personal  friend ;  one  by  a  lady 
medium  well  known  to  some  of  my  friends  ;  the  third 
by  different  members  of  one  family  all  quite  well  known 
in  a  neighbourhood  where  I  often  visit.  I  have  reason 
to  believe  that  each  of  these  three  books  is  an  honest 
effort  to  give  to  the  world  what  is  honestly  believed  to 
be  a  revelation  from  another  world,  verbally  inspired  by 
a  discarnate  spirit.  What  is  most  striking  about  all  these 
collections  is  that  they  reflect  the  general  thought  of  the 
circles  and  households  from  which  they  emanate.  What 
might  be  called  the  general  telepathic  environment  of 
the  medium  is  exactly  reflected,  and  nothing  more. 

If  "  mediumship "  means,  as  I  believe  it  does,  a 
greater  awareness  than  the  ordinary  person  possesses  of 
telepathic  environment,  a  greater  quiescence  of  the 
individual  judgment  and  the  conscious  reason,  such 
faithful  reflection  of  mental  environment  would  be  just 
what  we  should  expect.  I  find  no  individual  style  or 
character  in  these  books.  They  ripple  on  with  serious 
but  monotonous  and  insipid  platitudes  on  a  level  with 
surrounding  thought  and  belief. 

Such  physical  and  mental  automatisms  as  writing  or 
speaking  or  screaming  or  dancing  are  well  known  to 
medical  science.  They  can  be  self-induced  in  various 
ways.  A  child,  after  its  grief  is  appeased,  will  some- 
times go  on  sobbing,  unable  to  stop.  The  laughter  of 
a  hysteric  is  analogous.  Public  speakers,  even  of  strong 
character,  sometimes  find  themselves  unable  to  bring  a 
speech  to  a  desired  end  :  sentences  which  add  nothing 
to  the  force  of  what  they  have  said  keep  rising  in  their 
mind  and  rolling  from  their  lips  because  mind  and 
voice,  habituated  to  the  exercise,  work  automatically. 
Men  who  are  forced  to  think  on   certain  subjects  by 


VII    GOOD  AND  EVIL  IN  SPIRITUALISM  259 

day  often  find  that  they  cannot  help  thinking  of  them 
by  night  ;  their  conscious  thoughts  go  on  and  on,  but 
produce  no  conclusion.  Automatic  speech  or  writing, 
so  far  as  it  is  physical,  may  be  precisely  the  same  sort 
of  affection  in  kind,  although  it  is  a  further  develop- 
ment of  the  power  of  mechanical  habit.  So  far  as  it  is 
mental  it  may  be  referred  to  the  dream  consciousness 
discussed  later  on.  Responsible  members  of  the  S.P.R. 
are  generally  of  the  opinion  that  the  fact  that  speech  or 
writing  is  automatic  is  not  in  itself  any  evidence  that  it 
has  any  source  beyond  the  subconscious  mind  of  the 
medium.  Such  automatic  writings  as  the  S.P.R.  has 
offered  for  public  criticism  have  been  interesting  only 
because  they  appeared  to  contain  information  which  the 
medium  could  not  have  obtained  in  any  ordinary  way, 
and  which  was  of  such  a  nature  that  it  could  be  verified. 
As  to  descriptions  of  the  next  life,  what  spiritualists 
tell  us  is  of  no  importance  if  it  rests  on  no  other 
evidence  than  that  some  medium  has  produced  it  in 
automatic  speech  or  writing  and  attributed  it  to  the 
dictation  or  revelation  of  some  discarnate  spirit. 

(3)   Dream-consciousness  of  the  Medium 

This  brings  us  to  the  third  objection  to  the  claim 
of  spiritualists  to  know  the  conditions  of  the  next  life  : 
even  if  a  discarnate  spirit  were  striving  to  communicate 
through  a  medium's  automatic  speech  or  script,  the 
medium's  dream-consciousness  would  always,  potentially 
at  least,  vitiate  the  message.  Thus  we  must  consider 
the  working  of  the  dream-consciousness  of  human  beings. 
It  has  often  been  proved  that  dramatic  dreams,  which  to 
the  dreamer  appear  of  long  duration,  have  taken  place 
in  a  few  moments  of  time  and  have  been  suggested  by 
some  simple  external  circumstance,  such  as  a  knock  at 
the  door,  a  street  cry,  or  the  touch  of  something  near 
the  dreamer.  This  proves  the  facility  with  which 
the  human  imagination,  when  unbridled  by  conscious 


26o  IMMORTALITY  vii 

reason,  groups  scenes  and  narratives  round  some  casual 
sensuous  suggestion,  a  facility  well  known  to  every 
candid  student  of  dreams.  The  scenes  and  narratives 
will  depend  upon  the  temperament,  environment,  and 
experience  of  the  dreamer,  but  the  imaginative  power 
to  produce  them  when  in  a  dreaming  state  is  common. 
The  same  sort  of  power  is  seen  in  those  hallucinations 
which  in  mist  or  half  light  frequently  startle  waking 
people.  Some  half-seen  object  by  its  outline  or  colour 
suggests  something  else,  and  straightway  the  percipient 
sees  the  thing  suggested  in  all  its  detail,  although  the 
detail  can  be  proved  afterwards  not  to  be  there.  I  once 
stood  for  a  full  minute  with  a  friend  gazing  at  a  wonder- 
ful apparition  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  in  the  exact 
costume  of  her  best-known  portrait.  She  was  kneeling 
by  a  chair  in  a  darkened  room,  her  hand  and  face  up- 
lifted apparently  in  prayer.  We  both  saw  the  same 
person — the  attitude,  the  costume — in  the  light  from 
the  door  we  had  opened  ;  but  when  we  recovered  from 
our  astonishment  and  went  forward  to  investigate,  we 
found  only  a  black  velvet  gown  with  lace  frills,  which 
a  maid  had  thrown  carelessly  on  the  chair.  The  real 
outline  suggested,  but  only  suggested,  what  we  saw. 
The  imaginative  element  in  all  perception,  heightened 
in  such  a  case  as  this,  is  probably  the  same  that  runs 
riot  in  our  dreams.  Only  yesterday  I  was  told  that  a 
friend  had  had  a  long  and  vivid  dream  of  a  hound  that 
sprang  on  his  bed  and  grabbed  at  his  stomach  :  he 
awoke  to  feel  an  acute  pain  in  that  organ,  caused 
by  a  fit  of  indigestion.  When  I  was  a  child  having 
lessons  in  English  composition  my  class  was  given  the 
task  of  writing  an  essay  upon  the  herring.  I  idled 
my  time  and  went  to  sleep  with  the  heavy  conscious- 
ness that  I  had  no  paper  ready  to  give  in  the  next 
day.  I  dreamed  of  a  parliament  of  herrings  under 
the  sea,  in  which,  with  dramatic  ceremony,  a  red 
herring  was  elected  their  king.  Hastily  transcribing 
my  dream,  I  gave  in  a  paper,  and  later  was  amazed  to 


VII    GOOD  AND  EVIL  IN  SPIRITUALISM  261 

receive  an  ill-deserved  prize  for  imaginative  composi- 
tion. Had  I  gone  to  sleep  with  my  mind  full  of  the 
death  of  some  friend  and  heavy  with  perplexed  ques- 
tions concerning  the  after-life,  I  should  have  been  quite 
as  likely  to  have  had  a  coherent  dream  of  the  after-life. 
If,  on  repeating  such  a  dream  to  parents  or  friends,  it 
had  been  much  discussed  I  might  easily  have  had  more 
dreams  on  the  same  subject,  none  of  them  less  vivid  and 
coherent  or  more  authentic  than  that  of  the  herring 
parliament. 

To  the  facility  of  the  sleeping  dream  we  must  add 
the  facility  of  the  day-dreaming  imagination.  Weaving 
stories  of  our  own  pleasurable  expectations  or  "  building 
castles  in  Spain  "  is  a  very  common  source  of  self-enter- 
tainment. With  many  young  people  of  the  dreamy 
temperament  it  becomes  a  sort  of  second  life,  and  the 
dream-self  becomes  a  second  personality.  Some  have 
several  different  dream-selves  to  suit  different  moods, 
and  each  moves  among  a  different  set  of  characters.  As 
long  as  the  day-dreamer  remains  sane  and  wide  awake, 
the  difference  between  these  dreams  and  reality  is  not 
blurred ;  but  such  dreams  attest  the  facility  of  dramatic 
imagination  in  a  large  class  of  young  people,  and  in 
some  throughout  life.  Further,  there  are  times,  on 
going  to  sleep  and  on  awaking,  when  most  day-dreamers 
confuse  the  habitual  dream-story  with  reality.  It  is  in 
bed,  on  the  verge  of  sleep,  that  most  children  derive  the 
liveliest  pleasure  from  their  "  castles  in  Spain,"  because 
then  they  seem  to  be  in  reality  the  dream-self  and  to 
mix  with  the  dream  surroundings. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  in  a  previous  Essay  ^ 
that  Reverie  or  day-dreaming  is  only  the  first  of  a 
series  of  self-induced  hypnoidal  states  which  fade  off 
insensibly  into  one  another  until  they  culminate,  in 
what  looks  like  a  deep  sleep,  in  the  hypnotic  trance 
— of  which  the  trance  of  the  medium  seems  to  be  a 
variety.     We  cannot,  however,  realise  too  clearly  that 

1  Pp.  35  ff- 


262  IMMORTALITY  vii 

hypnoidal  states,  or  hypnotic  trances,  are  not — though 
the  name  suggests  it — states  of  sleepiness  or  sleep. 
They  are  rather  states  of  heightened  attention,  in  which 
the  mind  is  withdrawn  from  voluntary  trains  of  thought 
and  (at  certain  stages)  from  sensation.  The  conscious- 
ness thus  liberated  is  intensely  awake,  and  is  aware  of 
impressions  and  alive  to  conclusions  which  at  other  times 
would  be  unnoticed.  Things  that  we  know,  but  do 
not  know  we  know,  may  arise  in  it.  Vivid  imagina- 
tions started  by  chance  suggestions  may  pass  before  it. 
Thoughts  from  other  minds  may  intrude  upon  it — 
indeed  susceptibility  to  "  suggestion "  is  a  marked 
characteristic  of  the  hypnoidal  state.  When  the  state 
has  been  induced  by  another  person,  that  person  can 
by  suggestion  largely  determine  the  content  of  the 
mind  of  the  subject.  But  when  the  hypnoidal  state  is 
self-induced,  the  general  tenor  of  that  content  will 
probably  be  governed  by  the  real,  although  perhaps 
not  conscious,  tenor  of  desire  and  purpose  in  the  life 
of  the  subject.  Hence  where,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
automatic  writer  an  elementary,  or  in  the  case  of  the 
medium  in  trance  an  advanced,  stage  of  the  hypnoidal 
state  is  self-induced  with  the  express  purpose  of  getting 
into  communication  with  a  person  in  the  spirit-world, 
the  subject  is  likely  to  be  peculiarly  sensitive  to  tele- 
pathic suggestion  from  other  minds,  or  to  be  domi- 
nated by  an  uprush  of  ideas  latent  in  his  own  mind, 
concerning  some  person  in  the  spirit-world. 

In  the  light  of  these  considerations  we  may  examine 
the  conception  of  the  "  control  "  developed  by  mediums. 
Sir  O.  Lodge  says  :  "  The  kind  of  medium  chiefly  dealt 
with  in  this  book  is  one  who,  by  waiting  quietly,  goes 
more  or  less  into  a  trance,  and  is  then  subject  to  what 
is  called  '  control '  .  .  .  which  certainly  is  a  secondary 
personality  of  the  medium,  whatever  that  phrase  may 
really  signify."  ^  It  is  to  the  dramatic  imagination  of 
the  dream-consciousness  that  I  should  judge  the  apparent 

^  Raymond,  p.  86. 


VII    GOOD  AND  EVIL  IN  SPIRITUALISM  263 

personality  and  communications  of  the  "  control  "  to  be 
due.  But  Sir  Oliver  speaks  of  the  "  control  "  as  receiv- 
ing some,  but  only  some,  messages  which  he  thinks  arc 
from  "  the  next  world,"  and  "  transmitting  them  through 
the  speech  or  writing  of  the  medium,  and  with  man- 
nerisms belonging  either  to  the  medium  or  to  the 
'  control.'  The  amount  of  sophistication  varies  accord- 
ing to  the  quality  of  the  medium  and  to  the  state  of  the 
medium  at  different  times  ;  it  must  be  attributed  in  the 
best  cases  physiologically  to  the  medium,  intellectually  to 
the  control."  ^  It  is  when  the  dream  padding  is  coherent 
that  Sir  Oliver  apparently  calls  it  "  sophistication." 
When  speaking  of  information  given  by  Mrs.  Leonard's 
control,  "  Feda,"  as  to  the  nature  of  the  next  life,  he 
says  that  some  records  are  "  of  a  very  non-evidential 
and  perhaps  ridiculous  kind,  but  I  do  not  feel  in- 
clined to  suppress  them.  ...  I  should  think,  myself, 
that  they  are  of  very  varying  degrees  of  value,  and 
peculiarly  liable  to  unintentional  sophistication  by  the 
medium.  They  cannot  be  really  satisfactory,  as  we 
have  no  means  of  bringing  them  to  book.  The  diffi- 
culty is  that  Feda  encounters  many  sitters,  and  though 
the  majority  are  just  enquirers,  taking  what  comes  and 
saying  very  little,  one  or  two  may  be  themselves  full  of 
theories,  and  may  either  intentionally  or  unconsciously 
convey  them  to  the  control  ;  who  may  thereafter  retail 
them  as  actual  information,  without  perhaps  being  sure 
whence  they  are  derived."  " 

The  passages  in  the  sitting  referred  to  are  given  by 
Feda  dramatically  as  spoken  by  Raymond,  or  glibly, 
describing  Raymond's  experience.  "  He's  been  attend- 
ing lectures  at  what  they  call  '  halls  of  learning '  :  you 
can  prepare  yourself  for  the  higher  spheres  while  you 
are  living  in  lower  ones.  He's  on  the  third,  but  he's 
told  that  even  now  he  could  go  on  to  the  fourth  if  he 
chose  ;  but  he  says  he  would  rather  be  learning  the 
laws  ap-per-taining  to  each  sphere  while  he's  still  living 

'   Raymond,  p.  87.  '•*   Ibid.  pp.  19 1- 1 92. 


264  IMMORTALITY  vii 

on  the  third.  .  .  .  He  went  into  a  place  on  the  fifth 
sphere — a  place  he  takes  to  be  made  of  alabaster. 
He's  not  sure  that  it  really  was,  but  it  looked  like  that. 
It  looked  like  a  kind  of  temple — a  large  one.  .  .  .  He 
went  in,  and  he  saw  that  though  the  building  was  white, 
there  were  many  different  lights  ;  looked  like  certain 
places  covered  in  red,  and  .  .  .  was  blue,  and  the 
centre  was  orange.  These  were  not  the  crude  colours 
that  go  by  those  names,  but  a  softened  shade.  And 
he  looked  to  see  what  they  came  from.  Then  he  saw 
that  a  lot  of  the  windows  were  extremely  large,  and  the 
panes  in  them  had  glass  of  these  colours."  ^ 

Before  giving  these  and  analogous  passages.  Sir  O. 
Lodge  says  :  "  I  am  inclined  myself  to  attribute  a 
good  deal  of  this  to  hypothetical  information  received 
by  Feda  from  other  sitters  ;  but  it  seems  unfair  to 
suppress  it.  In  accordance  with  my  plan  I  propose 
to  reproduce  it  for  what  it  is  worth."  ^  Sir  Oliver 
does  not  himself  pronounce  any  final  decision  as  to 
whether  these  messages  are  from  the  discarnate  spirit 
and  therefore  veridical,  or  not.  He  seems  to  admit  the 
possibility  of  their  genuineness  without  sufficiently 
emphasising  the  grave  dilemma  involved.  If  these 
long,  and — to  us — certainly  ridiculous  accounts  of  the 
next  life  are  genuine,  it  becomes  impossible  to  defend 
their  triviality,  and  the  general  triviality  of  spirit  com- 
munications, on  the  ground  that  it  is  so  difficult  to  get 
through  coherent  messages  ;  yet  that  is  the  ground  on 
which  the  scrappy  or  trivial  nature  of  such  communica- 
tions is  always  defended.  On  the  other  hand,  if  these 
long  screeds  of  Feda's  proceed  from  the  medium's 
dream-consciousness,  it  must  be  observed  that  they  come 
with  just  the  same  credentials  as  any  other  message 
from  Raymond  or  other  discarnate  spirit  given  by  other 
mediums.  If  these  are  false  there  is  no  sufficient  reason 
for  accepting  any  spiritualistic  description  of  the  next 
life. 

1  Raymond,  pp.  263-264.  ^  Ibid.  p.  262. 


VII    GOOD  AND  EVIL  IN  SPIRITUALISM  265 

We  have  seen  that  the  imaginative  faculty  appears 
to  work  most  freely  when  the  subject  is  in  a  semi- 
waking  or  waking  condition,  but  with  the  conscious 
reason  entirely  diverted  or  inactive  ;  such  a  condition 
is  just  what  we  appear  to  get  when  mediums  obtain 
their  supposed  messages  from  discarnate  spirits ;  it 
is  therefore  but  reasonable  to  expect  that  their  dream 
imagination  will  work  actively  on  any  suggestion  given 
to  them  when  in  a  semi-sleeping  or  trance  or  automatic 
state.  What  Sir  Oliver  Lodge  calls  "  padding  "  appears 
to  show  that  such  dreams  figure  in  the  communications 
of  mediums  who  are  not  conscious  of  any  fraudulent 
intention. 

Young  people  who  indulge  in  ordinary  day-dreams 
are  usually  surrounded  by  friends  who  show  no  in- 
clination to  take  .interest  in  such  dreams.  The 
dreams  are  so  obviously  of  the  stuff  that  would  wake 
derision  in  the  bystanders  that  the  dreamer,  however 
prone  to  this  private  folly,  is  never  tempted  to  credulity 
concerning  it.  But  young  people  of  the  same  tempera- 
ment among  spiritualists,  if  they  betrayed  any  sign  of 
being  "  mediumistic,"  would  find  encouragement  to 
believe  a  certain  class  of  waking  or  half-waking  dreams 
inspired.  The  psychological  result  of  such  encourage- 
ment requires  investigation.  As  an  example  of  the  sort 
of  automatic  or  impressionist  script  that  is  accepted  and 
published  among  spiritualists,  I  quote  from  a  book 
which  seems  popular  among  them.  A  mother  purports 
to  speak  to  her  children  : — 

"  I  told  you  of  my  experiences  with  a  band  of  newly 
arrived  people  who  were  led  with  me  to  hear  some 
beautiful  music.  After  that  music  had  ceased,  they  did 
not  all  disperse,  but  we  went  on  in  a  little  company  still 
further  along  the  spacious  valley  till  we  were  met  by  a 
band  of  shining  ones,  who  came  towards  us  as  on  the 
wings  of  the  wind — so  swift  and  undulating  was  their 
motion,  and  each  of  these  messengers — for  such  they 
were — had  a  bright  star  on  his  or  her  forehead  ;  and 


266  IMMORTALITY  vii 

when  they  met  us  they  advanced  to  my  companions 
and  each  of  them  took  one  or  two  by  the  hand  and 
so  drew  them  away  by  different  paths  ;  but  one  of  these 
fair  messengers  remained  with  me,  and  led  me  apart  to 
a  green  spot  on  the  banks  of  one  of  the  bright  streams 
that  adds  so  much  to  the  music  and  the  beauty  of  this 
land,  and  sitting  on  that  sweet-scented  bank,  this 
comrade  from  a  higher  sphere  opened  his  heart  to  me, 
and  taught  me  more  of  the  true  wisdom  that  comes 
like  drops  of  balm  to  the  thirsting,  eager  spirit.  He 
told  me  that  other  work  was  awaiting  me  than  that 
I  was  now  doing  ;  that  it  would  come  gradually  ;  and 
he  assured  me  it  would  not  separate  me  from  Earth 
and  the  loved  ones  I  had  left  there,  but  would  greatly 
add  to  my  powers  of  helping  and  serving  them."  ^ 

This  is  quite  evidently  just  the  sort  of  thing  that 
the  habitual  day-dreamer  can  produce  "  for  seven  years 
together,  eating  and  sleeping  hours  excepted." 

(4)   The  Possibility  of  Clairvoyance 

There  is  another  difficulty  in  accepting  as  conclusive 
even  some  of  the  most  *'  evidential "  of  the  automatic 
scripts  published  by  the  S.P.R.  Those  that  are  nearest 
to  being  convincing  to  my  mind  are  given  by  Mr. 
Gerald  Balfour  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  S.P.R.,  vol. 
xxix.  No.  Ixxiii.  They  are  passages  from  the  script 
of  a  medium  called  Mrs.  Willett.  The  communicators 
purport  to  be  Dr.  A.  W.  Verrall  and  Prof  S.  H. 
Butcher,  both  dead.  The  evidence  consists  in  the  fact 
that  in  several  sittings  given  in  19 14-15,  a  number  of 
apparently  disconnected  classical  allusions  are  furnished 
— afterwards  found  to  circle  round  the  "  ear  of 
Dionysius  " — and  the  sitting  is  closed  with  the  words, 
"  Enough  for  this  time.  ...  A  literary  association  of 
ideas  pointing  to  the  influence  of  two  discarnate  minds." 
The  apparently  disconnected  allusions  were  finally  found 

^   Messages  from  the  Unseen,  pp.  1 40- 141. 


VII    GOOD  AND  EVIL  IN  SPIRITUALISM   267 

all  together  in  a  classical  work  by  an  American  scholar, 
a  copy  of  which  Dr.  Verrall  possessed  and  used  when 
preparing  his  lectures.  The  contents  of  this  book  were 
certainly  not  known  to  the  medium,  and  were  not  con- 
sciously known  to  Mrs.  Verrall  or  the  other  investi- 
gators. As  there  appears  to  have  been  no  one  concerned 
in  the  investigation,  or  connected  with  the  medium, 
who  had  in  mind  the  various  classical  stories  involved 
or  was  consciously  aware  of  the  one  historical  incident 
with  which  they  were  all  connected,  it  follows  that  there 
is  little  in  these  scripts  that  can  be  attributed  merely  to 
thought-transference  or  to  the  dramatic  dream-con- 
sciousness of  the  medium.  The  conclusion  of  Mr, 
Gerald  Balfour  and  some  others  is  that  they  were 
dictated  by  the  discarnate  mind  of  Dr.  Verrall  ;  others 
think  that  the  medium  really  had  the  knowledge  and 
had  forgotten  it.  But  there  is  another  possible  power 
of  the  subliminal  self  which  I  think  needs  to  be  taken 
into  account.  It  is  called  "second  sight,"  and  is  the 
faculty  of  seeing  at  a  distance  or  into  a  closed  room,  or 
reading  a  closed  letter  or  a  closed  book.  We  should 
need  to  know  much  more  of  the  nature  and  limits  of 
this  power  of  "second"  or  "  super -normal"  sight 
before  we  can  rule  it  out  as  a  possible  factor  in  pro- 
ducing this  script,  and  hence  before  we  could  consider 
the  evidence  proved  the  operation  of  discarnate  minds. 
I  have  personally  known  cases  in  which  certain  people 
at  certain  times  appeared  to  obtain  a  correct  impression 
of  letters  or  books  before  they  were  opened.  Thus, 
I  have  seen  a  child  open  a  large  Bible,  apparently  at 
random,  and  straightway  put  her  finger  on  a  somewhat 
recondite  text  that  had  been  asked  for,  although  by 
any  normal  method  she  could  only  have  found  it  after 
long  search.  Any  one  such  case  may,  of  course,  be 
mere  coincidence,  but  there  is  a  body  of  experience 
affording  evidence  of  such  a  faculty,  for  it  is  obviously 
quite  as  easy  to  read  a  closed  book  or  letter  as  to  see 
water  underground  or  see  what  is  passing  in  another 


268  IMMORTALITY  vii 

town.  The  operations  of  "  dowsers  "  seem  to  support 
this  theory,  as  also  do  some  of  Swedenborg's  well- 
attested  experiences. 

Other  evidence  of  the  same  faculty  can  be  found  in 
Myers's  Human  Personality^  vol.  i.  p.  352,  appendix 
236A  ;  and  p.  370,  appendix  41 5 A.  Vol.  vii.  of  the 
Proceedings  of  the  S.P.R.  contains  two  articles  by  Mrs. 
Sidgwick  and  one  by  Dr.  Alfred  Backman,  of  Kalmar, 
Sweden,  which  appear  to  establish  the  fact  that  when 
the  subconscious  mind  is  liberated  by  the  hypnotic 
trance  it  evinces  some  power  of  seeing  what  could  not 
be  discerned  by  the  agent's  physical  eyes — e.g.  seeing 
into  rooms  at  a  distance.  This  is  called  "  travelling 
clairvoyance."  It  appears  to  be  regarded  as  proved 
by  Sir  O.  Lodge.^ 

Whether  the  subconscious  minds  of  educated  people 
can  or  cannot  see  into  closed  books  which  they  do 
not  consciously  consult,  remains  to  be  proved. 

My  suggestion  as  to  a  possible  explanation  in 
the  case  of  the  Willett  script — if  it  be  true  that  no 
one  concerned  had  other  means  of  acquiring  this 
knowledge — is  that  Mrs.  Verrall's  subconscious  mind, 
excited  by  an  accidental  reference  in  an  early  script 
to  the  *'  ear  of  Dionysius,"  may  have  been  working 
upon  the  subject  and  obtaining  by  clairvoyance  from 
Dr.  Verrall's  books  around  her,  evidence  which  she 
was  able  to  transfer — also  subconsciously — in  a  patchy 
way  to  the  mind  of  Mrs.  Willett.  Such  a  description 
of  the  way  our  mental  affairs  may  be  conducted  is, 
I  confess,  fantastic  in  the  extreme,  but  the  evidence 
of  second  sight  or  travelling  clairvoyance  given  in 
the  articles  to  which  I  have  referred  is  also  extremely 
fantastic — one  would  have  said,  incredible,  and  nothing 
could  appear  more  incredible  than  the  true  story  which 
I  have  told  of  Miss  A  and  Mrs.  B. 

Turning  again  to  Raymond,  we  find  the  most 
evidential   circumstance  given  is  the  description  of  a 

1   Cf.  Hibbert  Journal,  April  1917. 


VII    GOOD  AND  EVIL  IN  SPIRITUALISM  269 

photograph  of  Raymond  communicated  to  Sir  Oliver 
Lodge,  who  had  not  seen  it.  The  case  is  this  :  On 
September  27  Lady  Lodge  was  informed  by  a  medium, 
Peters,  that  among  the  portraits  she  possessed  of  "  this 
boy  "  was  one  where  he  was  in  a  group  of  other  men, 
adding,  "  He  is  particular  that  I  should  tell  you  this. 
In  one  you  see  his  walking  -  stick."  As  all  officers 
carry  canes  and  are  often  photographed  in  groups, 
there  is  so  far  nothing  evidential,  but  what  follows 
is  noteworthy.  Lady  Lodge  at  that  time  had  no  such 
photograph  and  knew  of  none  such  ;  but  on  Novem- 
ber 29  she  got  a  note  from  a  Mrs.  Cheves,  a  stranger 
to  her,  but  the  mother  of  one  of  Raymond's  friends, 
offering  to  send  her  a  group  photograph  in  which 
her  son  Raymond  appeared,  and  adding,  "  I  have 
often  thought  of  you  and  felt  so  much  for  you  in 
your  great  sorrow."  Before  the  photograph  arrived 
Sir  Oliver  Lodge  consulted  another  medium,  Mrs. 
Leonard,  and  in  reply  to  questions  got  some  correct 
and  striking  details  concerning  the  photograph.  The 
question  remains  whether  travelling  clairvoyance  may 
not  have  given  this  information  to  the  mediums.^ 

(  5  )   Character  of  Messages 

The  fifth  objection  concerns  the  character  of  the 
messages  put  forward  as  coming  from  spirits  of  the 
dead.  Moral  and  religious  people  are  objecting  that 
they  are  too  trivial  to  be  credible.  But  I  do  not  con- 
ceive mere  triviality  or  littleness  to  be  a  real  objection. 
To  the  observant  nothing  is  insignificant ;  and  the 
characters  of  the  greatest  men  may  be  read  in  their 
trifling,  half- unconscious  actions.  On  earth  "  God 
comes  to  us  in  the  little  things." 

'  An  alternative  explanation  of  tliis  incident  would  be  that  the  medium 
was  able  to  "  photograph "  impressions  telepathically  conveyed  to  Sir  Oliver 
from  Mrs.  Cheves  j  the  only  difference  between  this  and  the  cases  quoted 
on  pp.  250-253  would  be  that  Sir  Oliver  and  Mrs.  Cheves  had  not  been  in  actual 
personal  contact,  though  they  had  clearly  been  thinking  about  one  another  in  con- 
nection with  Raymond. 


270  IMMORTALITY  vii 

If  the  next  life  is  continuous  with  this,  we  have  no 
need  to  think  of  it  as  of  huge,  empty  spaces  in  which  a 
few  magnificent  realities  loom  dreadful  to  the  naked 
soul.  If  God  is  Creator  He  is  eternally  Creator.  To 
create  means  to  manifest  thought  in  form.  There,  as 
here,  we  must  know  Him  in  the  beauty  of  His  creation. 
If  He  is  eternal  Love,  there,  as  here,  life  will  be  in  the 
human  family,  social,  hence  interesting  ;  there,  as  here,^ 
the  reign  of  God  will  be  within  blessed  souls,  and  their 
activities  will  make  its  outward  manifestations,  even  in 
smallest  words  and  actions.  Therefore  I  think  the 
objection  of  mere  triviality  cannot  hold. 

What  is  really  felt,  though  seldom  said,  is  that  all 
communications  are  disappointing  ;  those  which  cannot 
be  verified  are  feeble,  while  those  which  have  the  best 
verification  are,  for  the  most  part,  under  the  circum- 
stances, flippant.  Sir  William  Barrett,  in  his  book,  On 
the  Threshold  of  the  Unseen,  tells  us  of  a  young  officer 
who  was  killed  in  France,  and  who  before  leaving  for 
the  front  had  been  secretly  engaged  to  a  girl  who  was 
unknown  to  all  his  relatives.  Shortly  after  his  death  a 
message  was  spelt  out  on  the  ouija  board  purporting  to 
come  from  him,  merely  bidding  his  mother  to  give  his 
pearl  tie-pin  to  his  fiancee,  whose  name  he  supplied. 
The  information  was  verified,  and  he  was  found  to 
have  left  his  effects  by  will  to  the  lady.  What  should 
we  think  of  a  young  man  who,  lying  wounded  in  a 
base  hospital  after  going  through  the  terrible  experi- 
ences of  the  war,  is  able  to  send  one  short  telegram  to 
his  mother,  and  uses  the  opportunity  merely  to  arrange 
the  disposal  of  a  tie-pin,  in  such  a  way  announcing 
a  secret  engagement  }  And  is  such  a  message  less 
unfilial  and  flippant  if  it  come  from  the  other  side  of 
death  ?  1  cite  this  case  as  typical  of  many  messages 
from  missing  soldiers  that  would  have  seemed  imper- 
tinent or  insane  if  arriving  by  telegram  from  a  German 

^  Spatial  terms  are  used  without  prejudging  the  question  as  to  the  nature  of  the 
inter-relation  of  the  two  worlds. 


VII    GOOD  AND  EVIL  IN  SPIRITUALISM   271 

prison  or  a  foreign  hospital,  but  are  cherished  as  evidence 
of  survival,  though  obviously  a  more  appropriate  and 
feeling  message  could  have  been  just  as  simply  expressed 
and  just  as  evidential.  When  the  substance  of  such 
messages  can  be  verified  in  fact  it  is  more  likely  that 
they  result  from  telepathic  impressions  received  by 
relatives  before  the  death  and  only  realised  afterwards. 

The  same  objection  applies  to  messages  which 
"  evidentially "  are  of  a  much  higher  type.  Let  us 
take,  for  instance,  the  communications  published  by  the 
S.P.R.  under  the  title  "  The  Ear  of  Dionysius,"  referred 
to  above.  In  this  case  two  learned  men  of  fine 
character  are  represented  as  deciding  together  in  the 
unseen  how  to  get  some  evidence  of  their  personal 
survival  to  their  friends  on  earth.  They  had  been 
absent  from  those  friends  for  some  months,  and  those 
friends  in  the  meantime  had  been  experiencing  the  shock 
and  grief  of  the  present  war.  Surely  the  circumstances 
are  such  that  jokes  and  badinage  and  literary  reminis- 
cences of  the  lightest  type,  charming  enough  if  timely, 
are  not  expressive  of  a  rational  and  kindly  standard  of 
relative  values.  It  must  be  impossible  to  give  evidence 
of  personal  survival  that  will  admit  of  scientific  proof; 
only  a  strong  presumption  can  be  created  ;  but  there 
are  many  incidents  in  classic  lore  more  appropriate  to 
such  an  occasion  than  that  chosen,  and  as  suitable 
to  indicate  survival.  Evidence  of  this  sort  appears  to 
many  to  raise  more  difficulties  than  it  allays. 

(6)  Spiritualism  postulates  Verbal  Inspiration 

The  last  and  greatest  objection  which  I  have  to  urge 
concerns  the  whole  question  of  the  possibility  of  verbal 
inspiration  from  the  unseen  world. 

If  it  be  urged  that  communications  from  friends 
who  have  passed  into  the  next  world  are  not  of  the 
nature  of  a  revelation  or  inspiration,  but  that  they 
would  naturally  talk   to   us   by   words   and   signs  just 


272  IMMORTALITY  vii 

as  they  did  upon  earth,  it  may  be  answered,  first, 
that  we  cannot  possibly  take  communications  from 
those  who  have  passed  into  a  discarnate  state  as 
though  they  were  on  the  level  of  our  earthly  powers 
and  experience.  They  have  a  great  experience  which 
we  have  not ;  presumably  they  have  powers  and 
opportunities  of  knowledge  which  we  have  not.  We 
are  therefore  not  in  a  position  to  judge  what  in 
their  communications  is  probable  and  what  is  not, 
as  we  judge  the  communications  of  living  people. 
Their  words,  if  they  reach  us,  have  a  new  authority,  or 
at  least  a  new  importance  ;  and,  unfortunately,  to-day 
the  air  of  large  religious  circles  is  rife  with  notions 
that  are  supposed  to  have  been  got  in  this  way,  notions 
which  do  not  conduce  to  wisdom.  If  we  receive  from 
our  dead  communications  concerning  the  next  life, 
these  communications,  if  true,  are  certainly  revelations 
concerning  that  life,  and  therefore  of  vital  import  to 
us.  Further,  if  we  and  they  be  religious  we  shall 
naturally  believe  that,  while  such  revelations  are  given 
us  through  our  friends,  they  are  still  given  us  by 
the  grace  of  God.  Thus  we  cannot  blame  people 
who  receive  even  foolish  notions  as  authoritative  if 
they  believe  them  to  be  communications  from  the 
dead.  In  the  second  place,  the  word  "  inspiration " 
implies  some  thought  or  message  which  a  living 
person  believes  himself  to  receive,  not  through  his 
senses,  but  within  that  sphere  in  which  his  super- 
sensuous  nature  operates.  Methods  of  medlumistic 
operation  are  thus  described  by  Sir  O.  Lodge  : — 

"  When  the  method  of  communication  is  purely 
mental  or  telepathic,  we  are  assured  that  the  com- 
municator '  on  the  other  side '  has  to  select  from 
and  utilise  those  ideas  and  channels  which  represent 
the  customary  mental  scope  of  the  medium.  ...  In 
many  such  telepathic  communications  the  physical 
form  which  the  emergent  message  takes  is  that  of 
automatic    or    semi-conscious   writing   or   speech ;    the 


VII    GOOD  AND  EVIL  IN  SPIRITUALISM   273 

manner  of  the  utterance  being  fairly  normal,  but  the 
substance  of  it  appearing  not  to  emanate  from  the 
writer's  or  speaker's  own  mind  :  though  but  very 
seldom  is  either  the  subject-matter  or  the  language 
of  a  kind  quite  beyond  the  writer's  or  speaker's 
normal  capabilities.  In  other  cases,  when  the  medium 
becomes  entranced,  the  demonstration  of  a  communi- 
cator's separate  intelligence  may  become  stronger  and 
the  sophistication  less.  A  still  further  stage  is  reached 
when  by  special  effort  what  is  called  telergy  is  employed, 
i.e.  when  physiological  mechanism  is  more  directly 
utilised  without  telepathic  operation  on  the  mind."  ^ 
Here,  then,  we  see  Sir  Oliver  recognises  at  least  three 
methods  of  communication  from  those  in  the  next  life  : 
First,  an  impression  made  telepathically  on  the  mind  of 
the  medium  :  Secondly,  when  the  communicator  has 
some  share  in  the  control  of  the  semi-conscious  thought 
or  speech  of  the  medium,  who  is  entranced  :  and, 
Thirdly,  when  the  communicator  usurps  the  medium's 
vocal  chords  or  the  muscles  which  manipulate  the  pen. 
Messages  arriving  through  any  of  these  three  methods 
may  quite  legitimately  be  called  "  inspired,"  if  they  are 
believed  to  give  a  true  account  of  the  next  life  they  are 
regarded  as  a  revelation.  If,  then,  we  believe  that  by 
these  methods  we  obtain  messages  verbally  dictated  by 
departed  souls,  we  have  returned  to  a  belief  in  verbal 
inspiration,  and  I  wish  to  submit  that  all  the  difficulties 
with  which  we  are  familiar  in  believing  that  our  Scrip- 
tures were  thus  inspired  are  to  be  urged  against  any 
belief  that  our  friends  in  the  next  world  give  verbally 
inspired  messages  to  those  who  remain  in  the  flesh.  This 
may  not  be  a  final  objection  to  all  messages  from  another 
world,  but  it  is  a  serious  difficulty  and  must  be  faced. 

Which  of  us  believes  that  our  sacred  Scriptures  were 
verbally  inspired  }     If  we  do  not  believe  it,  why  not } 

There  is  no  need  to  recall  the  familiar  objections 
arising  out  of  historical  contradictions  and  inaccuracies 

'  Raymond,  p.  88. 

T 


274  IMMORTALITY  vii 

or  the  "  moral  difficulties  "  of  the  Old  Testament  and 
the  like.  But  it  is  perhaps  worth  while  to  suggest  two 
less  obvious  but,  as  it  seems  to  me,  even  more  cogent 
reasons. 

Firstly,  if  we  can  discern  any  purpose  at  all  in  the 
universe  it  is  the  educing  of  life  and  the  latent  powers 
of  life  by  enterprise  and  discovery.  The  evolution 
of  mind  or  soul  seems  to  be  an  aim  of  the  biological 
process  ;  it  is  the  going  forth  to  seek  food  that  develops 
mind.  Even  in  our  small  reach  of  biological  knowledge 
and  in  human  history  we  see  that  when  food  for 
the  stomach  or  for  the  soul  is  superimposed,  mind 
remains  servile  and  stunted.  It  is  alone  by  the 
enterprise  and  adventure  that  engage  all  his  powers 
that  man  grows.  In  him  is  planted  an  insatiable  desire 
to  know,  to  admire,  to  love.  This  desire  is  an  open 
mouth,  and  is  only  fed  by  what  he  discovers  for  him- 
self. The  vegetable  feeds  only  on  what  comes  to 
it,  and  develops  no  mind.  The  process  of  the  develop- 
ment of  mind  is  so  costly  that  if  God  be  God  or  Good 
the  value  of  what  is  educed  by  it  must  be  the  supreme 
value  of  our  world.  If,  then,  by  "  revelation  "  we  mean 
knowledge  concerning  things  as  yet  undiscovered  by  us, 
do  we  expect  this  knowledge  to  be  given  us  in  a  spoon, 
as  it  were,  from  another  world  ^  No,  we  conceive 
that  it  must  come  by  the  use  of  our  own  powers,  for 
only  by  use  can  they  grow  strong  enough  to  assimilate 
new  food.  On  the  other  hand,  God  cannot  be  any- 
thing to  which  we  could  give  that  name  if  He  does 
not  put  within  reach  of  our  attainment  what  we  require 
for  development.  It  is  because  of  the  Divine  Spirit 
within  us  that  we  seek  truth  ;  it  is  because  of  the 
Divine  Spirit  without  us  that  there  is  truth  to 
discover.  This  Divine  urgence  to  our  new  discovery 
is  one  consideration  which  causes  us  to  reject  the 
theory  of  God  and  of  truth  implied  in  the  belief  in 
verbal  inspiration  or  revelation. 

The  second  consideration  which  causes  us  to  reject 


VII    GOOD  AND  EVIL  IN  SPIRITUALISM  275 

the  belief  in  verbal  inspiration  is  historical.  If  man 
did  not  receive  this  saving  knowledge  we  infer  that 
God  could  not  give  it  without  doing  violence  to  man's 
freedom,  without  stunting  the  whole  development  of 
humanity  along  the  line  of  free  initiation.  Because, 
if  God  had  from  time  to  time  imparted  knowledge  to 
mankind,  either  direct  from  Himself  or  through  any 
discarnate  intelligence  who,  by  being  removed  ever  so 
little  from  this  earth,  might  see  the  trend  of  earthly 
events  in  truer  proportion,  how  very  much  of  the 
world's  misery  might  have  been  saved  !  Even  if  the 
instruments  of  our  better  information  had  been  the 
souls  of  well-intentioned  people  who  had  recently  left 
the  earth,  and  who  presumably  have,  as  Tennyson 
says,  *' larger,  other  eyes  than  ours"  ;  it  is  evident  that 
there  is  much  they  might  have  imparted  which  would 
have  been  of  wonderful  use  to  well-intentioned  people 
still  in  the  world. 

If  Socrates  could  have  imparted  to  Aristotle  right 
principles  of  scientific  investigation,  the  communication 
would  not  have  been  more  complex  or  more  difficult  to 
reduce  to  human  speech  than  the  messages  which  spirit- 
ualistic books  purport  to  give.  If  the  prophet  Moses 
could  have  imparted  to  the  prophet  Isaiah  such  truths 
as  that  it  is  not  God's  will  that  woman  should  be 
regarded  as  man's  chattel,  that  slavery  must  disappear 
with  the  development  of  true  religion,  that  animals, 
children,  and  servants  can  be  better  and  more  easily 
trained  and  controlled  by  kindness  than  by  the  rod,  how 
greatly  would  even  our  Western  manners  have  been 
ameliorated  and  God  vindicated  !  Or  again,  how  easy 
it  would  seem  for  some  of  the  Apostles  to  have  made  it 
clear  to  one  of  their  successors — say  St.  Augustine — 
that  religious  persecution  was  always  instigated  by  evil 
passions,  that  torture  is  not  the  best  way  of  obtaining 
truth  from  a  suspected  criminal,  nor  severity  of  punish- 
ment the  best  way  of  maintaining  discipline.  Or  if  they 
had  revealed  to  the  Church  that  magic  is  futile  and  that 


276  IMMORTALITY  vii 

we  dishonour  God  if  we  either  admire  or  fear  or  perse- 
cute those  who  profess  to  exercise  it,  how  enlightening 
it  would  have  been.  If  such  information,  and  even  in- 
formation more  vital,  was  not  given,  the  reason  must  be 
either  that  the  dead  are  as  ignorant  as  the  living  or  that 
they  are  not  able,  or  do  not  care,  to  impart  their  know- 
ledge to  us. 

There  is,  of  course,  much  in  what  is  called  "  inspired 
writing  "  that  purports  to  come  by  vision,  dream,  and 
message.  Such  visions  would  seem  to  be  the  judgment 
of  the  seer,  heightened  by  prayer,  taking  objective  form. 
Dr.  Rufus  Jones  has  made  careful  analysis  of  the  con- 
tents of  many  of  the  visions  of  well-known  mystics,  and 
he  is  convinced  that  what  occurs  in  such  so-called 
"  revelations  "  is  an  awareness  of  the  Divine  Presence 
which  heightens  the  natural  powers  of  the  mystic,  while 
the  actual  content  of  the  vision  always  reflects  the 
thought  of  his  community  and  age  —  that  is,  the 
heightened  power  enables  the  mystic  to  select  from  the 
thoughts  possible  to  his  age  and  place  those  that  are 
truest,  and  to  give  them  their  best  application.  Hence, 
no  dictation  by  God  of  thought  or  language  is  involved, 
for  there  is  no  trace  of  thought  or  language  that 
transcends  what  might  be  evolved  by  a  religious  genius 
of  that  age. 

Most  Old  Testament  scholars  would  admit  that  the 
same  analysis  is  applicable  to  the  prophetic  writings  ; 
indeed,  in  all  the  greatest  utterances  of  the  Bible  we  see 
clearly  a  method  of  inspiration  and  revelation  very 
different  from  the  supposed  method  of  verbal  inspira- 
tion. The  universalism  of  the  great  Hebrew  prophets 
is  clearly  a  God-guided  inference  from  the  character  of 
the  good  to  the  character  of  God. 

In  the  New  Testament  we  see  this  inference  from 
the  judgment  or  conscience  or  higher  reason  of  men  to 
the  character  of  God.  Our  Lord  reasoned  in  this  way. 
^ "  He  taught  His  disciples  that  they  could  take  the 

1   The  Manhood  of  the  Matter,  by  Dr.  Fosdick,  p.  12. 


VII    GOOD  AND  EVIL  IN  SPIRITUALISM  277 

most  beautiful  aspects  of  human  life,  like  fatherhood, 
and  lifting  them  up  to  the  best  they  could  imagine, 
could  say,  God  is  much  better  than  this.  '  If  ye  then, 
being  evil,'  He  said,  '  know  how  to  give  good  gifts  unto 
your  children,  how  much  more  shall  your  Father.'  .  .  . 
Jesus  taught  men  to  interpret  God  in  terms  of  the 
spiritually  best  they  could  imagine.  Whatsoever  things 
are  just,  true,  honourable,  pure,  lovely,  and  of  good 
report,  if  there  was  any  virtue  and  any  praise,  Jesus 
affirmed  these  things  of  God.  When  a  scientist  catches 
this  method  of  Jesus  in  thinking  of  God,  he  says,  in  the 
words  of  Sir  Oliver  Lodge,  '  I  will  not  believe  that  it  is 
given  to  man  to  have  thoughts  higher  and  nobler  than 
the  real  truth  of  things.'  When  a  poet  takes  fire  from 
Jesus's  joyful  conception  of  God,  he  pictures  —  as 
Browning  does  in  '  Saul ' — a  man  longing  to  help  his 
friend  and  then  rising  from  this  human  love  toward 
God  to  cry  : 

'Would  I  suffer  for  him  that  I  love?     So  wouldst  Thou — so  wilt 
Thou.'" 

If  indeed  God  could  —  or  we  might  better  say 
"would" — communicate  truth  in  human  words  or 
earthly  pictures  that  are  not  the  product  of  the  human 
mind,  what  must  we  conclude  concerning  His  mercy  ? 
The  old  theory  was  that  God  dictated  thoughts  to  those 
who  truly  served  Him  and  sought  truth  :  if  that  were 
so  we  must  conclude,  either  that  those  who  truly  serve 
God  and  seek  truth  are  very  few,  or  that  in  all  ages 
God  has  left  the  toiling  millions  of  earth  without  many 
kinds  of  enlightenment  that  He  could  have  given. 
Thus,  on  the  hypothesis  that  it  is  God's  will  to  limit 
human  freedom  so  far  as  to  dictate  thoughts  to  His 
servants,  we  are  driven  to  a  very  low  estimate,  either 
of  the  religious  morality  of  men,  including  even  the 
greatest  prophets,  or  else  of  God's  mercy.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  we  believe  that  to  those  who  seek  God 
and  truth  God  imparts  His  Spirit  to  heighten  all  their 


278  IMMORTALITY  vii 

powers  of  thought  and  feeling  and  volition  so  that  they 
may  reason  truly  and  read  aright  the  thoughts  of  God 
in  all  creation,  we  shall  infer  that  the  Divine  will  is  the 
education  of  the  human  mind  rather  than  magical  or 
mechanical  gifts  of  knowledge,  and  we  shall  be  very 
slow  to  believe  that  discarnate  spirits  find  channels  for 
the  arbitrary  dictation  of  information  concerning  our 
immortal  life  or  our  present  welfare. 

Ghosts 

So  far  nothing  has  been  said  of  the  "  evidence  "  of 
the  presence  of  discarnate  spirits  derivable  from  stories 
of  what  used  to  be  called  "  ghosts  "  but  are  now  called 
**  apparitions."  Near  the  time  of  death  apparitions  of 
the  dead  or  dying  have  been  frequently  seen.  The 
evidence  for  this  is  good.  But  much  the  most  probable 
interpretation  of  the  evidence  is  that  the  apparitions  are 
caused  by  a  subjective  telepathic  impression.  For  the 
person  who  "  appears  "  does  not  always  die  ;  and  occa- 
sionally, though  in  some  peril,  remains  in  perfect  health. 
Again  if,  as  is  quite  likely,  a  telepathic  impression  may 
persist  in  the  mind  of  the  percipient  for  some  time 
before  it  is  developed  in  consciousness,  the  occurrence 
of  such  apparitions  some  time — perhaps  a  year  or  two 
after  death — would  not  prove  the  presence  of  a  discar- 
nate spirit.  Also,  if  any  living  person  had  clearly  in 
mind  the  form  of  a  dead  person,  or  the  form  of  a  tradi- 
tional ghost,  the  ghostly  appearance  of  these  forms  to 
another  person  could  be  explained  by  thought-trans- 
ference. It  is  noteworthy  that  it  is  very  rare  to  find  an 
authentic  case  of  an  apparition  that  some  one  does  not 
at  once  triumphantly  "  identify."  If  apparitions  were 
the  result  of  telepathy  from  the  dead,  the  living  would 
surely  frequently  see  forms  that  could  not  be  identified, 
just  as  we  meet  with  strangers  in  the  street. 


VII    GOOD  AND  EVIL  IN  SPIRITUALISM  279 

The  Anti-social  Sin  of  Credulity 

In  Psychical  Research,  more  perhaps  than  in  any 
other  subject,  progress  in  our  knowledge  is  hindered  by 
credulity.  It  is  time,  and  more  than  time,  that  we  all 
realised  that  credulity  is  an  anti-social  sin,  whether  it 
is  shown  in  regard  to  this  or  to  any  other  matter. 
Credulity  may  be  defined  as  a  disposition  to  believe  on 
insufficient  evidence,  or  we  may  call  it  uncritical  belief. 
Webster's  Dictionary  illustrates  by  the  following  quota- 
tion from  Sir  W.  Hamilton  :  "  That  implicit  credulity 
is  the  mark  of  a  feeble  mind  will  not  be  disputed." 
Since  Hamilton's  day  we  make  a  distinction  between 
those  who  are  by  mental  defect  feeble-minded,  whether 
they  will  or  no,  and  those  who  voluntarily  indulge  in 
folly  to  the  deterioration  of  their  own  powers  and  the 
standards  of  social  intelligence.  Of  the  first  class  it  can 
hardly  be  affirmed  that  credulity  is  a  sin  ;  they  cannot 
help  it,  poor  souls  ;  but  that  any  one  should  voluntarily 
act  as  though  their  powers  of  reason  were  naturally 
impaired,  is  deliberately  dishonouring  to  themselves 
and  the  community,  and  if  they  are  religious,  it  is  dis- 
honouring to  the  God  they  profess  to  serve  and  the 
religious  society  to  which  they  belong. 

It  is  very  difficult  to  obtain  any  real  evidence  for 
super-normal  phenomena.  In  many  cases  even  what 
appears  to  be  the  best  evidence  breaks  down  under 
critical  investigation.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  no  first-hand 
evidence  can  be  found  for  the  great  majority  of  the  stories 
of  "  evidential "  messages  from  mediums  or  ghosts. 
Track  it  as  far  as  we  will,  it  is  nearly  always  "  some  one 
else  "  who  saw  the  ghost.  If  we  are  sure  we  have  good 
second-hand  evidence,  we  may  place  it  in  our  minds  as 
something  about  which  we  hold  our  judgment  in 
suspense — a  very  different  attitude  from  that  of  belief. 
Unless  we  have  first-hand  evidence  which  stands  the 
test  of  any  questions  as  to  details  which  we  put,  it  is 
not  worth  while  to  believe  the  story.     When  we  have 


28o  IMMORTALITY  vii 

first-hand  evidence  offered  to  us  the  first  point  to 
decide  is  whether  the  percipient  is  a  person  reliable 
about  other  things — first  as  to  honesty  of  intention, 
and  secondly,  as  to  good  judgment.  If  either  of  these 
points  is  doubtful,  we  may  well  doubt  the  story.  Given 
these  points  satisfactorily  settled,  and  assured  that  our 
friends  were  not  half-asleep  or  unwell,  we  have  to  bear 
in  mind  that  the  wisest  of  us  is  quite  frequently  under 
delusions  about  the  ordinary  happenings  of  life.  If 
you  cross-question  several  people  about  any  one  incident 
which  they  have  all  observed,  you  will  find  the  evidence 
so  conflicting  upon  some  points  that  it  becomes  clear 
that  one  or  two  of  them  thought  they  saw  something 
which  they  did  not  see,  or  thought  they  heard  some- 
thing they  did  not  hear.  And  this  degree  of  inaccuracy, 
common  as  it  is  even  among  truthful  or  mentally  trained 
people,  must  throw  uncertainty  on  the  greater  number 
of  marvellous  stories.  Very  common  examples  of  in- 
accuracy are  stories  of  mediumistic  messages  which 
purport  to  come  from  the  other  world  and  are  alleged 
to  state  facts  unknown  at  the  time  but  afterwards 
verified.  In  such  cases  it  can  almost  always  be 
discovered,  either  that  the  message  is  not  repeated 
exactly  as  the  medium  gave  it,  or,  if  accurately  re- 
ported, that  it  does  not  precisely  define  the  fact  it  is 
supposed  to  have  revealed,  or  that  the  fact  was  really 
known  to  some  one  concerned  before  the  medium  re- 
vealed it — in  which  last  case  telepathy  is  not  ruled  out. 
Unless  we  can  be  quite  certain  that  we  have  accuracy 
on  all  these  points,  and  that  our  friend,  in  retailing  the 
story,  is  not  relying  merely  on  that  treacherous  thing, 
the  story-teller's  memory,  the  story  is  not  worth 
harbouring  in  our  minds. 

Let  us  examine  for  a  moment  the  harm  it  does  to 
give  currency  to  untrue  stories  of  this  sort.  Suppose 
in  a  community  of  one  thousand  persons  there  are  three 
veridical  cases  of  super-normal  phenomena,  and  that 
there  are  twenty-five  stories  in  all  of  such  phenomena 


VII    GOOD  AND  EVIL  IN  SPIRITUALISM  281 

which  pass  from  one  to  another  and  are  believed  by 
half  the  community.  Twenty-two  of  these  stories  will 
be  founded,  either  upon  the  exaggerations  of  rumour, 
or  upon  a  misunderstanding,  or  upon  delusion  of  some 
sort.  Now,  the  three  veridical  cases  are  of  real  im- 
portance, because  they  can  furnish  some  further  evidence 
for  some  serious  hypothesis  with  regard  to  our  com- 
munication with  the  unseen.  It  is  therefore  important 
that  they  should  receive  serious  attention,  be  analysed 
and  probed  to  the  uttermost,  and  classified,  so  that  we 
may  find  out  whether  some  hypothesis  which  has 
accounted  for  other  cases  can  be  held  to  also  explain 
them,  or  whether  they  add  evidence  in  favour  of  some 
other  hypothesis.  It  is  only  thus  that  any  real  know- 
ledge on  such  matters  can  be  acquired,  and  it  is  only 
upon  genuine  fact  that  we  can  base  any  reasonable 
inference  for  some  fresh  aspect  of  faith.  The  result  of 
the  credulity  which  adds  to  the  currency  of  three 
veridical  cases  some  twenty-two  which  will  not  bear 
any  examination,  is  that  the  unbelieving  half  of  the 
community  will  not  give  fair  consideration  to  what  is 
worth  it.  They  find  themselves  wading  knee-deep  in 
nonsense  if  they  listen  to  reports,  and  will  therefore 
turn  a  deaf  ear  to  all.  But  this  is  not  the  only  harm 
done.  All  stories  of  super-normal  phenomena  which 
are  true  will  tally  with  each  other  in  certain  respects, 
will  corroborate  a  true  hypothesis  when  such  exists  ; 
but  untrue  stories  may  easily  discredit  the  truest 
hypothesis,  and  when  they  are  believed  and  repeated 
confuse  the  minds  of  even  genuine  researchers. 

But  the  anti-social  sin  of  credulity  does  not  belong 
only  to  spiritualists.  A  certain  class  of  religious  thinkers, 
even  to-day,  encourage  a  much  worse  form  of  credulity 
in  preaching  the  terrors  of  demonic  influence.  On 
this  point  I  will  quote,  with  his  permission,  from  a 
recent  sermon  of  the  Master  of  the  Temple,  printed  in 
The  Guardian  of  February  22,  19 17  : — 

"  Superstition  is  the  acceptance  of  religious  beliefs 


282  IMMORTALITY  vii 

which  are  contrary  to  or  not  justified  by  the  assured 
results  of  human  experience  and  human  thought. 
Superstitions  die  hard.  To  observe  accurately  and  to 
draw  just  conclusions  from  one's  observation  is  not 
easy.  Metaphysics,  the  study  of  the  nature  of  ultimate 
reality,  is  a  difficult  subject.  And,  moreover,  the  in- 
terpretation of  religious  experience  which  the  average 
man  makes  for  himself  is  unlikely  to  be  satisfactory. 
Primitive  explanations  of  God  and  His  realm  of  action 
continue  to  be  too  readily  accepted  by  the  unreflective 
mind.  Man  progresses  slowly  ;  and  the  mass  of  men 
will  often  accept  or  hark  back  to  false  ideas  which  the 
leaders  of  the  thought  of  their  time  condemn.  Especi- 
ally is  this  likely  to  be  true  at  a  period  of  emotional 
activity. 

"  The  modern  consensus  of  educated  opinion  which 
regards  magic  and  witchcraft  as  worthless  imposture 
is  little  more  than  two  centuries  old.  Belief  in  the 
possibility  of  magical  practices  was  almost  universal 
until  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  the 
record  of  the  teaching  and  legislation  of  Christendom 
in  regard  to  such  matters  is  deplorable  reading.  Those 
who  are  unfamiliar  with  Europe's  history  of  blood- 
stained credulity  should  read  the  first  chapter  of  Lecky's 
History  of  Rationalism  in  Europe.  They  will  find 
that  Church  Councils  from  the  Synod  of  Elvira  in 
A.D.  306  onwards  not  only  denounced  the  practice,  but 
firmly  believed  in  the  possibility  of  black  magic.  St. 
Thomas  Aquihas,  the  ablest  theologian  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  maintained  alike  its  reality  and  heretical  nature. 
Gerson,  who  possibly  wrote  the  Imitatio  Christie  defended 
the  belief.  The  Inquisition  drenched  Europe  in  blood 
to  extirpate  witchcraft.  And  Luther  and  the  followers 
of  Calvin  were  at  one  with  Rome  in  believing  it  true 
that  diabolical  powers  were  derived  from  the  devilish 
compacts  which  they  denounced. 

"  Nor  did  theologians  alone  hold  such  superstitious 
beliefs.     Many  of  the   ablest   English  Judges  of  the 


VII    GOOD  AND  EVIL  IN  SPIRITUALISM  283 

sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  conducted  elaborate 
trials  of  witches,  and  by  their  speeches  and  judgments 
showed  that  they  fully  shared  the  popular  credulity. 
The  fact  should  be  a  significant  warning  that  often  in 
psychical  investigations  even  the  ablest  men  discover 
what  they  set  out  to  seek.  Gradually,  however,  the 
superstition  vanished.  In  England  the  last  trial  for 
witchcraft  occurred  in  171 2,  and  the  laws  against 
sorcery  were  repealed  without  controversy  in  1736. 

"  It  is  sad  reading — this  record  of  the  struggles  of  the 
Christian  Church  and  of  Christian  communities  to  free 
themselves  from  primitive  demonology  ;  from  beliefs 
long  anterior  to  Christianity,  still  referred  to  in  Italy  as 
la  vecchia  religione.  I  would  not  mention  the  subject 
to-day  but  for  my  fear  lest  a  belief  in  demonology 
should  be  revived.  Lecky  points  out  how,  whenever 
disease  or  political  catastrophe  has  made  men  acutely 
conscious  of  evil,  or  when  the  growth  of  a  new  spirit  of 
critical  enquiry  has  challenged  the  optimism  of  an 
assured  faith,  the  rapid  growth  of  a  belief  in  magic, 
with  all  its  evil  consequences,  has  shown  itself.  Shall 
we  see  the  same  terrible  return  to  human  error  as  a 
result  of  present  calamities  ^ 

"  Last  Wednesday  Lord  Halifax,  the  President  of  the 
English  Church  Union,  spoke  at  St.  Martin's-in-the- 
Fields  on  Sir  Oliver  Lodge's  Raymond.  I  rejoice  to  see 
that  one  usually  regarded  as  the  spokesman  of  a  large 
party  in  the  English  Church  warned  his  hearers  of  the 
evil  results  which  often  attend  the  morbid  excitements 
of  spiritualism.  When  I  discussed  the  subject  in  this 
church  I  tried  to  urge  with  equal  emphasis  the  danger 
to  moral  health  which  those  incur  who  enter  the  atmo- 
sphere of  fraud,  delusion,  and  psychical  pathology  that 
surrounds  seances.  I  pointed  out  that  the  evidence  for 
communication  with  the  dead  was  entirely  inadequate 
to  establish  the  fact,  and  urged  Christians  to  leave  such 
investigations  to  highly-trained  unemotional  scientific 
observers.     But    if   I    understand    aright    the   copious 


284  IMMORTALITY  vii 

extracts  from  his  address,  given  in  The  Guardian  of 
Thursday  last,  Lord  Halifax  does  not  regard  the 
practices  of  the  medium  as  a  mixture  of  imposture  and 
delusion.  He  credits  her  with  some,  at  least,  of  the 
supposed  powers  of  the  old  witch.  He  explicitly  likens 
the  controls,  Feda,  Moonstone,  and  the  like,  to  the 
familiar  spirits  Pluck,  Catch,  and  so  forth,  who  figured 
in  a  celebrated  trial  for  witchcraft  in  1593.  Apparently 
— I  fear  that  I  do  him  no  injustice  —  he  accepts  the 
mediaeval  demonology  that  we  thought  we  had  dis- 
carded. He  states  that  in  the  communications  of  the 
medium  '  the  evil  is  plain,  and  for  a  Christian  the 
source  of  their  inspiration  is  clear.'  He  asks  Sir  Oliver 
Lodge  whether  the  knowledge  assumed  to  be  possessed 
by  Raymond  may  not  '  come  from  an  altogether 
different  source,'  and  significantly  in  the  next  sentence 
says  :  '  Satan  for  his  own  purposes  can  transform  him- 
self into  an  angel  of  light.' 

"  The  difference  between  my  own  view  of  spiritualism 
and  that  of  Lord  Halifax  can  be  summed  up  in  a 
sentence  by  using  an  oft-employed  metaphor.  I  do 
not  think  that  there  is  any  evidence  to  prove  that 
telephonic  communication  with  the  other  world  has  been 
established  ;  his  lordship  thinks  that  a  devil  is  speaking 
into  the  receiver  at  the  other  end." 

The  Gains  of  Psychical  Investigation 

So  far  we  have  been  dealing  with  the  objections  to 
accepting  the  main  evidence  for  communication  with 
discarnate  spirits  which  has  been  advanced  by  the 
Spiritualists  and  the  enquirers  of  the  S.P.R.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  are,  I  feel  convinced,  two  very  sub- 
stantial gains  which  come  to  us  through  these  channels. 
The  first  is  that  an  important,  if  only  initial,  step  has 
been  taken  towards  discovering  the  ways  in  which  mind 
may  prove  itself  independent  of  the  body  ;  and,  secondly, 
we  have  a  mass  of  evidence  which  cannot  be  ignored 


VII    GOOD  AND  EVIL  IN  SPIRITUALISM   285 

that  living  people  have  felt  themselves  to  be  in  the 
presence  of,  and  in  some  sort  of  tacit  communion  with, 
departed  spirits. 

In  regard  to  the  first  of  these  points,  another  essay 
in  this  book  ^  makes  it  clear  how  far  such  phenomena  as 
telepathy  between  living  minds  and  the  clairvoyance  of 
the  hypnotic  state  tend  towards  a  rational  belief  in  the 
survival  of  the  human  soul  in  its  integrity.  These  tele- 
pathic powers  seem  to  involve  will,  memory,  and  reason  ; 
therefore  the  evidence  for  telepathy  and  clairvoyance 
strengthens  the  presumption  that  these  powers  do  not 
pass  away  at  death.  For  if  thought  can  traverse  the 
world,  and  make  itself  comprehensible  between  men  at 
a  distance,  it  is  thereby  proved  not  to  be  dependent 
upon  sense  connections.  It  need  only  here  be  added 
that  while  the  investigators  of  the  S.P.R.  tell  us  again, 
and  again  that  their  object  in  proving  the  fact  of  verbal 
communications  is  to  show  that  the  soul  in  passing 
through  death  does  not  lose  the  normal  powers  which 
characterised  it  here,  they  have  gone  very  far  to  establish 
a  strong  presumption  of  the  survival  of  these  powers, 
without  proving  these  communications. 

The  second  point  will  require  a  more  detailed  con- 
sideration. What  is  the  value  of  the  witness  of  many 
honest  people  who  are  assured  that  they  have  ex- 
perienced some  sort  of  contact  with  their  discarnate 
friends  ?  If  we  admit  the  testimony  of  religious 
experience  as  one  ground  for  our  belief  in  the  possibility 
of  communion  with  God,  we  cannot  disregard  this 
conviction  of  honest  people  that  they  commune  with 
their  dead.  For  this  conviction  is  separable  from,  and 
is  quite  independent  of,  any  stimuli  offered  to  the 
senses  in  objective  apparitions,  or  movements  of  objects, 
or  voices,  or  human  words  dictated  to  mediums  who 
speak  or  write.  All  these  things  appeal  to  our  senses, 
and  we  have  as  yet  no  proof  that  they  are  not  all  the 
work  of  the  subconscious  earthly  human  mind.     But 

^  "The  Mind  and  the  Brain,"  pp.  52  ff. 


286  IMMORTALITY  vii 

the  hypothesis  I  would  suggest  is  that  these  things 
occur  as  the  result  of  an  effort  to  interpret  the  sense 
of  the  "  presence  "  of  a  discarnate  spirit  which  I  believe 
to  be  veridical,  but  that  they  are  usually  a  mistaken 
interpretation.  For  when  we  sum  up  all  such  sensuous 
experiences,  how  unsatisfactory  they  are  if  regarded  as 
a  true  interpretation  of  our  relation  to  the  world  of 
departed  spirits  !  But  in  spite  of  this  I  think  we  may 
take  it  that  the  effort  of  spiritualists  to  interpret,  the 
constant  recurrence  of  this  effort,  the  insistence  of  the 
human  soul  on  this  aspect  of  life,  does  indeed  point  to 
reality — i.e.  to  the  existence  of  a  real  touch  between  the 
visible  and  invisible  worlds. 
Vr*'  I  personally  find  it  incredible  that  so  many  reason- 
'^'^■-  I  able  and  truth  -  loving  people  should  have  followed 
1-^  I  this  way  for  so  many  years  and  should  have  so 
easily  accepted  as  cogent  evidence  that  which,  when  ex- 
amined dispassionately,  appears  insufficient,  unless  they 
had  had  some  true  experience  which  cast  a  glamour  of 
apparent  truth  over  much  that  was  false.  Further,  if,  on 
other  grounds,  we  believe  both  in  immortality  and  that  the 
character  of  God  and  of  His  universe  is  such  that  those 
who  seek  find,  it  appears  more  reasonable  to  believe 
that  those  who  earnestly  sought  to  come  in  contact 
with  some  one  they  had  loved  and  lost,  found  what 
they  sought,  and,  experiencing  the  inner  truth  of  this, 
and  in  the  light  of  it,  interpreted  sensuous  phenomena 
which  but  for  this  would  have  appeared  trivial  and 
inconclusive. 

It  has,  of  course,  become  a  dogma  with  many  men 
of  science  that  this  life  is  cut  off  from  any  invisible 
life,  if  such  there  be,  beyond  the  grave.  On  the 
whole,  this  has  been  a  very  respectable  belief,  both 
for  men  of  science  and  for  religious  people  who  desired 
to  think  reasonably.  For  it  must  be  remembered  that 
the  choice  as  presented  to  minds  in  the  eighteenth  and 
nineteenth  centuries  lay  between  becoming  a  victim  of 
the  silly  fears  engendered  by  the  common  ghost  story 


VII    GOOD  AND  EVIL  IN  SPIRITUALISM  287 

and  disbelieving  the  possibility  of  any  communion  be- 
tween the  dead  and  the  living.  It  lay,  also,  between  the 
conception  of  God's  aloofness,  which  made  supplication 
to  the  Virgin  and  the  saints  necessary  to  a  cheerful  life 
of  prayer,  and  the  conception  of  the  human  mind  as 
having  access  only  to  God  and  to  none  else  in  the 
invisible  world  ;  between  explaining  away  all  vivid 
telepathic  impressions  as  mere  coincidence,  and  believing 
every  phantasm  of  the  mind  to  have  objective  reality. 
The  choice  they  made  was  a  wise  one  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, for  nothing  more  inhibits  true  faith  than 
the  superstition  that  peoples  the  unseen  with  romantic 
beings  for  whose  existence  there  is  no  shred  of  real 
evidence. 

We  are  not  in  their  position.  For  us  there  is 
sufficient  evidence,  gathered  mainly  by  the  honoured 
labours  of  those  who  have  done  yeoman's  service  in  the 
S.P.R.,  of  the  power  of  mind  to  communicate  with  mind 
irrespective  of  material  contact,  to  justify  us  in  revising 
the  verdict  of  the  sturdy  common  sense  of  our  ancestors. 

In  the  first  place,  all  "  ghost "  stories  and  stories  of 
apparently  supernatural  knowledge,  when  they  can  be 
proved  true,  can  be  explained  more  reasonably  by  the 
telepathic  hypothesis  than  by  any  other.  We  need  no 
longer  be  afraid  that  intelligent  minds  will  succumb  to 
theories  of  the  supernatural  world  based  on  fantastic 
mental  experiences,  nor  need  we  fear  the  dominance  of 
any  religious  system  which  teaches  that  men  must 
be  afraid  of  speaking  directly  to  God,  or  that  any  lesser 
spirit  can  be  nearer  to  them  than  Divine  Love.  Again, 
we  have  already  much  careful  evidence  as  to  the  nature 
and  result  of  telepathic  impressions,  and  we  look  for- 
ward confidently  to  the  progress  of  scientific  research 
along  this  line  ;  but  what  we  already  know  convinces 
us  that  when  such  a  telepathic  impression  comes  into 
consciousness,  the  thought  or  feeling  of  the  agent  or 
agents  giving  the  impression  is  already  mixed  with  the 
interpretation  of  the  individual  mind  which  receives  it. 


288  IMMORTALITY  vii 

So  that  individual  experience  of  this  sort  must  always 
be  referred  to  the  common  sense  of  the  many,  must  be 
assimilated  to  all  else  that  is  found  true  or  credible, 
before  what  is  received  in  this  way,  even  if  it  did  come 
from  another  world,  can  be  counted  as  adding  to  the 
store  of  truth. 

We  may,  therefore,  with  perfect  safety  ask  ourselves 
whether  within  our  own  experience  we  may  not  find 
real  evidence  of  telepathic  touch  with  discarnate  spirits. 

We  have  already  learned  that  there  is  much  more 
in  our  actual  experience  than  we  consciously  attend  to. 
A  common  illustration  of  this  is  that  when  we  come 
to  know  a  new  word  we  see  it  frequently  in  books 
and  newspapers.  This  is  not  because  it  suddenly  enters 
books  and  newspapers,  but  because  before  we  learned 
the  word,  to  use  the  Gospel  phrase,  "our  eyes  were 
holden  "  and  we  did  not  see  it.  We  had  eyes  and 
we  saw  not.  So  in  our  summer  gardens,  after  we  learn 
to  distinguish  the  note  of  a  certain  bird,  we  constantly 
hear  that  little  bird  singing  to  us  in  the  bushes.  The 
bird  sang  before  our  enlightenment.  We  had  ears  but 
we  did  not  hear  it,  and  were  only  conscious  of  the 
larks  and  thrushes  whose  notes  we  had  learned  in 
our  childhood. 

We  need  not  on  this  account  suppose  that  we 
need  "  a  sign  from  heaven "  in  order  to  receive  a 
new  revelation  about  the  things  which  belong  to 
our  peace. 

An  artist  is  constantly  making  discoveries — seeing 
in  colour  and  form  what  he  never  saw  before,  but 
what  was  always  there  to  be  seen.  Again,  there  are 
many  authentic  instances  of  men  and  women  under 
an  anaesthetic  or  in  delirium  having  shown  themselves 
able  to  remember  matters  they  had  never  consciously 
known.  Similarly,  then,  it  is  possible  that  in  the 
experience  of  the  inner  life  evidence  may  be  found 
which,  if  it  tally  with  all  else  that  is  true  and  reason- 
able,   may    give    us    real    light    on    things    at    present 


VII    GOOD  AND  EVIL  IN  SPIRITUALISM  289 

unapprehended.  I  was  once  speaking  to  a  man 
distinguished  in  practical  affairs,  and  I  chanced  to 
say  of  a  family  matter,  "  How  much  this  would 
delight  your  wife  if  she  were  still  living  and  could 
know  it."  He  replied,  "  She  is  living,  and  she  does 
know  it."  I  said,  "  How  do  you  know  she  knows 
it?"  He  replied  quite  simply,  "I  asked  God  to  tell 
her,  and  after  that  I  knew  that  she  knew."  We 
are  too  reverent  to  probe  such  an  experience  as  this, 
but  the  quiet  certainty  of  his  tone  convinced  me 
that  some  experience  had  satisfied  his  own  well- 
balanced  judgment.  Yet  at  another  time  this  same 
man  could  speak  with  some  contempt  of  people  who 
imagined  they  could  have  sensuous  impressions  of  what 
was  spiritual.  Such  an  experience  as  that  I  have 
just  quoted  recalls  to  our  minds  the  undoubted  fact, 
which  all  to  whom  God  has  revealed  Himself  will 
recognise,  that  in  God  we  have,  if  we  will  use  it, 
a  means  of  speaking  to  our  beloved  dead. 

My  own  opinion  is  that  there  is  real  ground  for 
reverent  investigation  ;  much  to  encourage  us,  along 
with  much  negative  evidence  to  discourage  us.  If  there 
is  truth  to  be  discovered  and  we  meet  only  with  what 
seems  to  us  blank  negation,  we  must  remember  that  our 
own  negative  attitude  toward  the  whole  subject  would 
be  only  too  likely  to  make  us  deaf  and  blind.  I  think 
the  method  most  likely  to  be  safe  and  helpful  for 
most  of  us  is — while  never  omitting  to  bring  all  our 
fears,  doubts,  hopes,  and  questions  to  God — to  pray 
for  the  welfare  of  those  whom  we  have  loved  and 
who  are  lost  to  sight,  and  after  such  prayer,  take  time 
to  think  of  them  in  the  silence  and  ask  ourselves 
whether  we  have  not  some  reason  to  believe  that 
they  also  are  thinking  of  us. 

To  make  clear  what  I  take  to  be  the  distinction 
between  "  the  sense  of  presence "  and  any  evidence 
of  verbal  communication  with  a  discarnate  spirit,  I 
would  refer  to  the  family   "  table-sittings "   which  Sir 

u 


290  IMMORTALITY  vii 

Oliver    Lodge    so    faithfully    describes     in    his    book, 
Raymend. 

In  these  "  table  -  sittings  "  of  the  Lodge  family  in 
their  attempts  to  communicate  with  Raymond,  we 
are  strongly  impressed  with  the  sense  of  Raymond's 
presence,  which  is  here  so  graphically  described.  I 
get  this  impression  all  through  the  book.  What  I 
would  suggest  is  that  this  sense  of  presence  may  be 
perfectly  veridical,  but  that  the  actions  of  the  table 
may  have  been  entirely  the  result  of  the  subconscious 
mentality  of  the  Lodge  family,  and  the  character  of  its 
movements  decided  by  minds  strongly  moved  by  that 
sense  of  presence. 

"  A  family  sitting,"  says  Sir  Oliver,^  "  with  no 
medium  present  is  quite  different  from  one  held  with  a 
professional  or  indeed  any  outside  medium.  Informa- 
tion is  freely  given  about  the  doings  of  the  family  ; 
and  the  general  air  is  that  of  a  family  conversation." 
And  again  ^  he  says  that  when  a  table  is  employed 
the  communicators  (i.e.  the  spirits  of  the  dead  persons) 
"  say  they  feel  more  directly  in  touch  with  the  sitters 
than  when  they  operate  through  an  intermediary  or 
'  control '  on  their  side.  .  .  It  (the  table)  can  indicate 
joy  or  sorrow,  fun  or  gravity.  .  .  and,  most  notable  of 
all,  it  can  exhibit  affection  in  a  most  notable  manner." 

When  serious- minded  persons  speak  of  a  table 
as  "  exhibiting  affection,"  one  can  only  suppose  that  an 
overwhelming  sense  of  the  presence  of  the  spirit  of 
the  departed  has  caused  the  family  group  to  read 
into  the  motions  of  the  table  a  meaning  which  is  really 
derived  from  their  own  inner  experience  of  direct 
contact  with  an  unseen  person. 

I  have  myself  experienced  the  tilting  and  dancing 
of  a  table  under  the  hands  of  several  people  and 
the  inexhaustible  but  coherent  platitudes  it  could  so 
spell  out.  But  in  my  experience,  although  the  table 
did   all   these    things,   and    although    the    four   people 

^  Cf.  Raymond,  p.  2i8.  2  /^/^  pp    363-364. 


VII    GOOD  AND  EVIL  IN  SPIRITUALISM  291 

whose  finger-tips  were  on  it  were  quite  incapable  of 
deception  and  unconscious  of  producing  the  fantastic 
results,  there  was  no  medium  present  and  no  talk  or 
thought  of  discarnate  spirits.  We  had  been  told 
that  the  "subliminal  self" — whatever  that  was — could 
tilt  tables  ;  we  did  not  believe  it,  but  upon  trying  we 
found  that  it  could.  We  none  of  us  had  the  slightest 
doubt — nor  have  I  yet — that  the  mechanical  force  and 
rudimentary  intelligence  came  in  some  way  from 
ourselves.  If  the  mechanical  force  come  from  the 
'*  sitters  " — in  our  case  we  had  to  run  round  the  room 
after  the  table — there  can  be  no  reason  to  suppose  that 
the  "  sitters  "  do  not  also  supply  the  intelligence. 

On  this  point.  Sir  Oliver  Lodge  admits  (p.  137)  : 
"  The  effort  required  to  tilt  the  table  is  slight,  and 
evidentially  it  must  no  doubt  be  assumed  that  so  far 
as  mechanical  force  is  concerned  it  is  exerted  by 
muscular  action." 

But  though  I  hold  this  view  of  the  origin  of  the 
mechanical  force  exerted,  the  account  of  private  family 
sittings  at  Mariemont  (Pt.  II.  chap,  xix.)  suggests  to  me 
the  inference  that  the  spirit  of  Raymond  was  probably 
with  them  and  able  so  to  come  into  personal  touch  with 
them  that  they  were  perfectly  aware  of  (i)  his  presence, 
(2)  his  sympathy  with  their  moods  and  diversions,  (3) 
his  desire  to  assure  them  of  his  own  integrity  and 
continued  happiness.  But  I  remain  unconvinced  that 
anything  that  the  table  did  or  said  was  a  correct  inter- 
pretation of  Raymond's  thoughts  in  detail. 

Conclusion 

The  real  cause  of  the  hold  which  Spiritualism  has 
on  many  religious  minds  is  the  failure  of  the  Church 
to  realise  in  practice  the  meaning  of  the  Communion 
of  Saints.  The  Mediaeval  Church  failed  on  account  of 
the  unchristian  superstition  which  pictured  the  next 
stage  of  existence  as  a  state  of  mere  torture  and  punish- 


292  IMMORTALITY  vii 

ment.  The  reaction  of  the  Protestant  mind  against 
mercenary  prayers  and  ceremonies  to  relieve  the  misery 
of  the  souls  in  Purgatory  was  healthy.  But  with 
this  came  in  another  superstition,  that  it  was  wrong  to 
pray  for  the  dead  or  to  believe  in  their  fellowship  with 
the  living.  In  so  far  as  it  is  a  reaction  against  this 
newer  superstition,  Spiritualism  shows  a  healthy  instinct. 
But  the  methods  employed  by  spiritualists  to  bridge 
with  friendly  overtures  the  stream  of  death  appear  to 
be  mistaken  and  therefore  dangerous.  They  are,  at 
best,  only  a  roundabout  way  of  obtaining  a  sense  of 
companionship  with  those  who  have  passed  on,  since 
the  same  sense  of  companionship  might  be  obtained 
better  and  more  easily  by  prayer.  Then,  too,  when 
this  sense  of  companionship  is  attained  in  the  spiritual- 
istic stance,  or  by  some  private  automatic  means,  it  is 
inevitably  mixed  with,  and  confused  by,  communica- 
tions from  the  inner  mind  of  the  medium  or  agent, 
which  is  always  subject  to  telepathic  intrusions  from — 
none  can  tell  whom. 

In  the  concluding  essay  of  this  volume  I  hope  to 
show  how  love  can  open  a  door  between  this  life  and 
the  next,  by  which  we  can  get  more  real  knowledge  of 
that  next  life  and  a  truer  communion  with  those  who 
have  entered  into  it  than  we  can  by  any  attempts  to 
get  sensuous  indications  of  their  presence  through 
mediums,  table-turning,  or  other  such  means.  I  have 
read  a  good  deal  of  Spiritualist  literature,  and — apart 
from  the  light  it  incidentally  sheds  on  purely  scientific 
problems  like  telepathy — 1  think  that  the  grain  of 
wheat  in  the  chaff  is  this  sense  of  presence,  which  I 
believe  to  be  authentic  and  to  be  the  real  cause  why 
many  really  noble  minds  accept  evidence  of  sensuous 
communications  on  most  insufficient  grounds. 


VIII 

REINCARNATION,   KARMA    AND 
THEOSOPHY 

BY    THE    AUTHOR    OF 

"PRO  CHRISTO  ET  ECCLESIA" 
(lily  dougall) 


293 


SYNOPSIS 

PAGE 

Part  I. — Reincarnation  and  Karma  295 

Reincarnation  as  a  speculation  of  religious  philosophy. 
{a)  Its  historic  origin. 
(A)   Objections  to  the  belief. 
Karma  and  Retribution. 

{a)  Attractiveness  of  the  doctrine. 

(b)    Its  origin. 

(f)    Sin  and  suffering. 

(i.)  The  sinner's  suffering  does   not   cancel  results  of 

his  sin. 
(ii.)  Traditional  theory  of  punishment  ineffective, 
(iii.)  The  sinner's  fate  not  suffering  but  degradation, 
(d)  Karma  a  false  theory  of  justice. 

Part  II. — Modern  Theosophy    .  .  .  -317 

Theosophy  as  a  religion. 

(i)  The  claim  to  occult  knowledge. 

(a)  The  claim  as  made. 

(b)  Hypnoidal  conditions  and  their  content, 
(f)    Prayer  and  Ecstasy  in  Christian  devotion. 
{d)  Barrenness  of  Trance-experience. 

(2)  Doctrine  of  the  common  origin  of  all  religions. 

(3)  The  conception  of  Personality. 


294 


VIII 

REINCARNATION,  KARMA  AND 
THEOSOPHY 

PART  L— REINCARNATION  AND  KARMA 

Reincarnation  as  Philosophical  Theory 

The  doctrine  of  Reincarnation  presents  itself  to  the 
thought  of  the  modern  Western  world  with  the  prestige 
derivable  from  the  fact  of  its  primitive  and  widespread 
currency.  It  comes  down  to  us  through  two  ancient 
and  apparently  independent  traditions  of  religious  philo- 
sophy. One  tradition  derives  from  the  doctrine  of 
Karma,  which  first  appears  in  the  early  Upanishads  of 
India  about  the  seventh  century  B.C.  It  was  adopted 
into  Buddhism  with  certain  modifications,  but  as  these 
characteristic  modifications  have  disappeared  in  later 
Buddhism,  the  doctrine  of  Karma  in  its  original  form 
has  become  the  very  core  of  the  religious  belief  of  a 
large  portion  of  mankind.  At  the  present  day,  through 
the  influence  of  modern  Theosophy,  it  is  beginning  to 
gain  large  numbers  of  adherents  in  Europe  and 
America.  Along  another  line  of  tradition  the  doctrine 
of  the  pre-existence  of  the  soul  comes  to  us  from  Plato, 
being  derived  by  him,  it  is  supposed,  from  the  Orphic 
Mysteries,  which  were  probably  uninfluenced  by  Indian 
thought  ;  and  it  is  being  upheld  on  metaphysical 
grounds  at  the  present  day  by  no  less  a  philosopher 
than  Dr.  McTaggart.     An  ancient  doctrine  so  widely 

295 


296  IMMORTALITY  vm 

held  and  so  ably  supported  cannot  be  dismissed  without 
serious  consideration,  whatever  one  may  think  of  some 
of  the  other  views  of  the  religions  and  sects,  ancient 
and  modern,  which  maintain  it. 

Dr.  McTaggart's  doctrine  of  Reincarnation  is  bound 
up  with  his  metaphysical  belief  in  a  pluralistic  universe, 
and  stands  or  falls  with  it.  A  critical  examination  of 
the  theory  of  a  pluralistic  universe  cannot  be  under- 
taken in  this  place  ;  but  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  it 
is  not  shared  by  most  modern  philosophers  or  by  the 
writers  of  this  volume.  We  need  not,  therefore,  deal 
here  with  his  argument  for  Reincarnation,  which  is  a 
mere  corollary  of  his  general  metaphysic.  It  may  be 
noted,  however,  that  he  rejects  any  argument  for  the 
immortality  of  the  soul  which  is  based  on  the  goodness 
of  God  ;  but  he  perceives  that,  assuming  the  goodness 
of  God,  as  the  Christian  thinker  does,  immortality  could 
be  proved  more  easily  than  pre-existence.  Given  its 
premises,  he  allows  the  force  of  the  Christian  argument 
for  immortality  in  the  following  passage  : — 

"  Arguments  of  this  type  (assuming  the  universe  the 
work  of  a  benevolent  creator)  could  prove  immortality 
more  readily  than  they  could  prove  pre-existence.  No 
wrong  can  be  done  to  the  non-existent,  and  it  could 
hardly  be  made  a  reproach  to  the  goodness  of  the  uni- 
verse that  it  had  waited  a  long  time  before  it  produced 
a  particular  person.  But,  once  produced,  any  person 
has  a  certain  moral  claim,  and  if  it  could  be  shown  that 
his  annihilation  was  inconsistent  with  those  claims,  we 
could  argue  from  the  goodness  of  the  universe  to  the 
impossibility  of  his  annihilation."  ^ 

Belief  in  the  transmigration  of  souls,  or  Metem- 
psychosis, seems  to  appear  in  its  earliest  definite  form 
as  totemism.  Many  totemistic  tribes  believe  that  at 
death  man  becomes  like  his  totem — a  tiger,  an  ox,  a 
frog,  etc.  Further,  they  explain  conception  as  the 
descent  of  some  discarnate  spirit  from  some  dead  tree 

1  Human  Immortality  and  Pre-existence,  by  Dr,  J.  M.  E.  McTaggart,  p.  75. 


VIII        REINCARNATION  AND  KARMA       297 

or  animal.-^  From  all  this  it  is  an  easy  step  to  the  later 
idea  that  the  better  men  might  again  become  men.  It 
is  obvious  that  in  speculating,  as  all  men  have  done, 
upon  what  may  happen  to  the  soul  after  death,  the 
thought  of  a  return  to  the  only  life  they  know  is  a  very 
natural  one  ;  in  any  case,  it  was  a  belief  common  to 
many  tribes  and  to  several  ancient  civilisations. 

But  though  Reincarnation  was  in  earlier  ages  a  very 
natural  belief,  and  may  seem  attractive  now  to  those 
who  seek  authority  from  the  past,  there  are  certain 
considerations  which,  I  think,  combine  to  present  an 
argument  of  some  weight  against  it. 

(i)  The  objection  to  Reincarnation  which  perhaps 
first  strikes  us  is  the  lack  of  conscious  continuity  between 
the  incarnations  of  a  soul.  Even  granting  all  that  may 
be  claimed  to  exist  in  this  life  as  "  intimations  "  of  a 
former  life  or  lives,  it  amounts  to  very  little  ;  one 
feels  that  a  future  life  that  has  no  more  conscious  con- 
nection with  this  one  than  this  has  with  any  former  life 
is  not  worth  accepting  as  personal  immortality,  indeed 
a  continuance  of  memory  is  necessary  to  personality. 

It  is  true  that,  under  the  pressure  of  the  Christian 
stress  on  personal  immortality,  later  Oriental  thinkers 
maintain  that  the  soul  when  it  attains  a  certain  eleva- 
tion is  able  between  its  incarnations  to  look  back  on  all 
its  past  lives,  and  that  when  it  rises  high  in  the  scale  of 
being  it  is  able  to  bring  this  continuous  memory  back 
into  its  earthly  lives.  Modern  Theosophists  claim, 
indeed,  that  their  Adepts,  now  alive  upon  earth,  have 
such  a  continuous  memory.  No  adequate  evidence  is 
forthcoming,  however,  to  substantiate  this  claim  ;  and 
it  must  be  noted  that  the  thing  which  on  this  theory 
is  supposed  to  survive  and  be  reincarnated  is  at  best 
not  a  person  ;  it  is  something  which  has  lost  all  emotion 
and  all  desire.  Judging  the  doctrine  on  a  p?'iori 
grounds,  the  ordinary  man  will  deem  it  weary  work  to 
plod  through  some  hundreds  of  reincarnations  before 

^  Consult  T/ie  IVay  of  Nir-vana,  by  Professor  de  la  Vall6e  Poussin,  pp.  1 1,  18. 


298  IMMORTALITY  viii 

attaining   to   any   continuous   thread  of  memory  con- 
necting them. 

(2)  Again,  it  is  important  to  observe  how  geocentric 
at  bottom  the  doctrine  is — a  fact  not  often  realised. 
Hindu  philosophers  no  doubt  held  vaguely  the  exist- 
ence of  other  worlds  in  different  cycles  of  manifestation  ; 
but  the  geocentric  conception  of  our  present  universe, 
common  when  the  belief  was  formulated,  prevented  the 
belief  in  other  worlds  having  any  discernible  influence 
on  their  theory  of  the  future  life.  We  find  the  influence 
of  the  same  geocentric  conception  of  the  universe  in 
other  religious  philosophies.  For  the  Greeks  there 
was  but  one  world  where  discipline  and  social  experience 
were  possible.  For  us  there  are  other,  probably  habit- 
able, worlds,  and  no  need  to  hold  the  difficult  doctrine 
of  physical  rebirth  as  the  mode  of  the  soul's  entrance 
to  them.  Even  assuming  its  further  experience  is  in 
material  conditions,  when  we  think  of  the  vastness  of 
this  magnificent  universe  of  ours,  of  its  innumerable 
solar  systems,  no  idea  could  be  more  unnatural  to  us, 
if  we  did  not  inherit  it  from  the  past,  than  that  this 
remote  speck  of  star-dust  called  our  earth  should  be 
the  only  part  of  it  utilised  by  God  for  the  progress 
of  the  human  soul.  It  is,  of  course,  conceivable 
that  human  souls  should  be  so  bound  to  this  planet 
that  they  must  return  again  and  again  by  rebirth,  but 
it  does  not  appear  the  more  reasonable  hypothesis. 
It  certainly  seems  to  us  a  gratuitous  limitation  of  possi- 
bility to  assume  as  axiomatic  that  only  in  this  little 
corner  of  the  universe,  and  under  the  exact  physical 
conditions  of  life  here,  can  our  destiny  be  worked  out. 
This  geocentric  conception  of  a  future  life,  almost 
necessary  to  an  earlier  age,  in  our  days  bespeaks,  not 
merely  an  intellectual  limitation,  but  poverty  of  imagina- 
tion. To  us  the  discovery  of  the  infinite  range  of  a 
universe  teeming  with  millions  of  worlds  has  indeed  made 
the  earth  seem  smaller,  but  it  has  made  the  possibilities 
for  the  future  life  seem  infinitely  wider  and  more  varied. 


VIII       REINCARNATION  AND  KARMA       299 

Notwithstanding  this,  it  is  true  that  to  the  imagina- 
tion of  many  people  the  enormous  number  of  souls 
which  earth  appears  to  generate  through  successive  ages 
presents  a  real  difficulty  which  belief  in  successive 
rebirths  would  meet.  These  spiritual  Malthusians  are 
greatly  occupied  with  the  housing  problem.  They  cry, 
"What  limit  is  there  otherwise  to  the  generations? 
Where  can  they  be  accommodated  ? "  To  other  minds 
the  multiplicity  of  solar  systems  extending  in  space 
as  far  as  we  can  hazard  any  guess,  with  their  innumer- 
able habitable  worlds  which  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose 
available,  is  a  corresponding  difficulty.  In  any  case  it 
is  more  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  two  difficulties 
have  a  corresponding  solution  than  to  assume  a  number 
of  successive  births  and  deaths  for  every  soul.  We 
must  not  forget  that  both  theologians  and  philosophers  ^ 
carried  a  tidy-minded  desire  to  limit  the  number  of 
worlds  in  the  universe  to  an  absurd  extreme  before 
they  would  admit  the  logical  inference  of  astronomical 
discovery  ;  it  is  exactly  the  same  limitation  of  thought 
that  makes  us  imagine  that  a  universe  with  fewer  souls 
would  be  more  tidy. 

Dr.  James  Ward  ^  argues  that,  viewed  from  the 
general  standpoint  of  science,  "  the  probability  is  not 
against,  but  enormously  in  favour  of,  a  plurality  of 
worlds,  as  men  of  science  almost  unanimously  allow  "  ; 
and  goes  on  to  show  that,  "granted  that  in  the  one 
universe  there  are  many  worlds,  the  Christian  theo- 
logian has  the  strongest  grounds  for  believing  that  they 
are  spiritually  and  historically,  and  not  merely  physically, 
interconnected." 

All  these  worlds  may,  for  aught  we  know,  be  stages 
in  the  destiny  of  each  human  person.  He  may  pass 
from  world  to  world  with  memory  intact  and  without 
physical  rebirth.  He  may  continue  his  age-long  pro- 
gress in  the  society  of  his  own  generation  and  possibly 

*   Sec  Pluralism  and  Theism,  by  Dr.  J.  Ward,  pp.  1S1-184. 
2  IbiJ.  p.  18+. 


300  IMMORTALITY  viii 

also  of  preceding  and  following  generations.  This  is,  of 
course,  speculation,  but  so  also  is  the  theory  of  reincar- 
nation on  this  earth. 

(3)  Much  ancient  thought,  with  the  exception, 
perhaps,  of  Semitic  and  Persian  varieties,  conceived  of 
the  soul's  spiritual  life  as  solitary.  A  right  attitude 
and  course  of  action  toward  other  beings  was  part  of 
its  discipline,  but  the  aim  was  to  get  beyond  this  dis- 
cipline. The  aim  and  goal  of  the  soul's  progress  being 
thus  non-social,  it  "was  natural  to  suppose  that  until  the 
jostling  with  fellow-creatures  experienced  in  this  life 
had  had  its  perfect  work,  the  soul  must  return  again 
and  again  to  this  earth.  The  Hebrew  conception  of 
social  virtues  and  social  obligations  as  "  eternal " 
(aeonian),  and  of  social  salvation  as  a  goal,  has  been 
endorsed  by  Christianity  and  is  more  in  harmony  with 
all  that  sociology  and  social  psychology  have  of  late 
years  been  teaching  us  of  the  unity  of  the  race  and  of 
our  mutual  interdependence. 

All  this  drives  the  modern  mind  to  think  of  every 
stage  in  the  soul's  future,  during  probation  or  in 
heaven,  as  social,  and  makes  it  impossible  to  suppose 
that  social  experience  and  social  discipline  only  obtain 
in  the  earthly  life. 

(4)  Again,  in  Hindu  thought  the  doctrine  of  re- 
incarnation is  bound  up  with  the  ancient  idea  that  all 
being  proceeds  in  endless  cycles,  and  that  in  the 
universe  all  things  tend  to  repeat  themselves  by  an 
endless  return.  But,  though  this  theory  of  the  revolv- 
ing wheel  of  existence  fascinated  the  ancient  Indian 
mind,  and  appealed  by  the  splendour  and  sweep  of  the 
conception  embodied  in  it  to  some  of  the  Greek  and 
Roman  poets  and  thinkers,  modern  science  offers  us  no 
shadow  of  proof,  or  even  presumption,  that  physical 
creation  revolves  in  returning  cycles.  For  the  modern 
thinker  the  idea  is  obsolete,  and  so  also  is  the  analogy 
it  furnished  for  the  conception  of  the  soul  as  revolving 
on  an  eternal  wheel  of  life  and  death. 


viri       REINCARNATION  AND  KARMA       301 

(5)  A  final  difficulty  concerning  Reincarnation  is 
little  touched  upon  by  its  advocates,  that  is,  that  it 
makes  childhood,  which  appears  so  beautiful  and  so 
holy  as  the  beginning  of  a  virgin  soul,  a  gigantic  lie, 
merely  a  part  of  nature's  protective  mimicry  intended 
to  deceive  parental  love  and  human  reverence,  the 
greatest  of  the  illusions  of  sense.  It  is  hard  to  con- 
ceive how  any  mother  can  look  into  the  dawning 
intelligence  of  her  child's  eyes  and  be  satisfied  to  believe 
that  in  innumerable  past  lives  that  same  soul  has  gone 
through  experience  savage  and  civilised,  has  probably 
been  in  turn  harlot  or  rake,  victim  or  tyrant,  wife 
or  warrior,  layman  or  priest,  and  perhaps  all  these  a 
hundred  times. 

If  we  take  the  beauty  of  that  story  of  Jesus  Christ 
setting  a  little  child  in  the  midst  of  His  disciples  and 
telling  them  that  to  become  "  like  this  little  child  "  is 
to  find  the  door  of  the  heavenly  kingdom,  we  shall 
realise  how  for  us  the  whole  beauty  and  point  of  the 
scene  vanish  if  we  think  of  the  soul  of  that  child  as 
already  an  aged  pilgrim,  scarred  and  seamed  by  evil 
experience,  only  innocent  in  the  sense  in  which  the 
senile  are  innocent  when  memory  entirely  fails. 

The  facts  of  life  often  advanced  as  arguments  for 
pre-existence  are  the  following  : — 

(a)  The  sudden  friendship  that  often  springs  up 
between  people  before  unknown  to  each  other. 

To  account  for  this  it  may  be  urged  that  the  extra- 
ordinary complexity  of  human  life,  the  innumerable 
strains  of  heredity  that  are  combined  in  any  child's 
inheritance,  would  seem  sufficient  to  account  for  such 
characteristic  predelictions  ;  whereas  if  they  indicated 
recognition  of  the  friends  of  a  past  life,  and  if  all 
human  beings  now  living  had  experienced  many  lives, 
such  recognitions  ought  to  be  of  more  frequent  occur- 
rence, for  even  among  people  whom  Theosophists 
would  consider  on  a  similar  plane  of  development  they 
are  comparatively  rare. 


302  IMMORTALITY  vm 

(^b)  It  is  argued  that  the  tendencies  and  quahties  in 
precocious  children  which  do  not  seem  to  be  accounted 
for  by  either  ancestry  or  environment  are  proofs  of 
knowledge  acquired  in  some  previous  life.  But  the 
evidence  seems  to  point  the  other  way,  for  there  is, 
again,  the  great  difficulty  that  infant  prodigies  so  very 
rarely  occur,  and  when  they  do,  their  genius  always 
has  to  do  with  numbers,  and  runs  to  music  or  arithmetic. 
This  suggests  that  it  follows  some  psychic  law  by  which 
the  operations  of  the  mind  having  to  do  with  numbers 
may  be  early  and  abnormally  developed.  We  do  not 
get  any  good  evidence  of  child-philosophers  or  child- 
painters  or  child -statesmen  or  child -scientists  ;  yet  if 
the  acquirements  of  a  past  life  were  the  cause  of  infant 
precocity  we  surely  should  get  all  these. 

On  the  whole,  those  arguments  from  the  nature  of 
the  self  which  seem  to  me  to  point  to  the  probability 
of  its  immortality  do  not  appear  to  point  also  to  a 
series  of  former  births  and  deaths,  but  rather  to  a 
spiritual  origin  for  all  that  we  may  call  created  life,  the 
soul  of  each  child  being  interpreted  as  a  differentiation 
of  the  universal  life  which  comes  from  God. 

It  appears,  then,  that  unless  there  exists  some  strong 
reason,  based  on  our  perceptions  of  moral  necessity,  to 
believe  in  a  multiplicity  of  earthly  lives  for  each  soul, 
this  hypothesis  of  the  whence  and  whither  of  every 
earthly  life  may  be  set  aside.  The  doctrine  of  Karma, 
however,  is  held  by  many  to  afford  just  such  a  valid 
reason  for  belief  in  reincarnation,  and  this  we  have 
now  to  consider. 


Karma   and   Retribution 

Attractiveness  of  the  Doctrine 

Not  long  ago  I  heard  at  a  London  dinner-table  a 
conversation  among  rather  influential,  but  quite  ordinary, 
religious  people. 


VIII        REINCARNATION  AND  KARMA       303 

One  lady  said  with  a  touch  of  scorn,  "  I  have  too 
much  respect  for  personality  to  beheve  in  the  trans- 
migration of  souls  ;  the  soul  that  had  been  a  hundred 
different  persons  would  have  no  personality." 

Another  vigorously  replied,  "  I  could  not  believe  in 
God  if  I  did  not  believe  in  Reincarnation  and  Karma. 
Before  I  understood  those  great  truths  I  wasted  my 
energy  raging  at  the  injustice  of  the  universe  ;  now  I 
can  work  intelligently." 

The  first  answered,  "  I  don't  understand  your  idea 
of  justice." 

The  other  retorted  confidently,  "  The  law  of  Karma 
is  the  only  perfect  justice  ;  it  alone  vindicates  perfect 
righteousness.  In  it  we  see  that  each  soul  suffers 
precisely  according  to  its  sins  ;  no  one  suffers  for  the 
sins  of  another.  When  men  are  born  to  suffering  it  is 
because  in  past  lives  they  have  deserved  it  ;  and  it  is 
only  by  deserving  something  better  that  they  can  escape 
suffering.  We  owe  a  great  debt  to  the  Theosophists 
for  having  taught  us  this," 

The  conversation  then  became  general,  and,  upon 
the  whole,  most  present  were  inclined  to  assent  to  the 
doctrine  of  Reincarnation  and  Karma  as  a  good  working 
hypothesis,  because  it  satisfied  their  belief  in  the  moral 
government  of  the  world. 

It  is  well  to  realise  clearly  what  are  the  strong  points 
of  this  doctrine.     These  seem  to  be  : — 

First  ;  it  is  an  attempt  to  solve  the  greatest  of  all 
moral  and  religious  problems — the  problem  of  evil. 
It  is  an  attempt  to  affirm,  in  the  face  of  apparently 
contradictory  experience,  the  fundamental  conviction 
of  the  human  heart  that  the  Universe  in  the  last  resort 
is  morally  governed.  As  such,  it  invites  a  sympathetic 
consideration. 

Secondly  ;  it  clearly  recognises  the  prevalence  of  the 
law  of  cause  and  effect  in  the  moral  sphere.  Every 
action  has  inevitable  consequences,  and  those  conse- 
quences extend  beyond  the  present  life  of  the  individual. 


304  IMMORTALITY  viii 

Thus,  it  is  an  emphatic  asseveration  of  moral  responsi- 
bility and  of  the  eternal  consequences  of  right  choice. 

Thirdly  ;  it  gives  a  moral  basis  for  a  conception  of 
the  nature  and  character  of  the  future  life  which  it  is 
easy  for  the  most  unimaginative  to  grasp. 

Origin  of  the  Doctrine 

The  doctrine  of  Karma  originated  with  the  In  do- 
Aryan  tribes  during  the  period  in  which  they  were 
subjugating  northern  India.  A  very  interesting  and 
easily  accessible  account  of  it  is  given  in  the  Hibbert 
Lectures  of  Professor  de  la  Vallee  Poussin. 

Karma  did  not  form  a  part  of  the  religion  which 
these  early  Aryan  tribes  brought  with  them  into  India. 
Modern  teachers  of  Brahmanism  read  the  doctrine  into 
the  hymns  of  this  early  religion  by  a  process  of  inter- 
pretation akin  to  that  which  has  been  used  by  Christians 
in  reading  later  Christian  beliefs  into  the  Old  Testament. 
It  seems  certain,  however,  that  the  religion  of  this 
noble  and  most  gifted  race,  as  seen  in  the  Rigveda,  is 
free  from  pessimistic  ponderings  on  the  problem  of  evil 
and  the  terrible  entail  of  sin. 

Professor  Poussin  thus  describes  the  earlier  belief  of 
the  Rigveda  : — 

"  Superstitions  connected  with  the  belief  that  the 
dead  are  living  in  the  grave,  depending  for  this  shadowy 
life  on  the  offering  poured  on  the  grave,  are  not 
abolished  in  the  Vedic  civilisation.  The  general  view 
is  nevertheless  an  altogether  hopeful  one.  The  dead, 
who  are  called  the  Fathers,  do  not  envy  the  living  as 
did  Achilles.  Some  of  them  are  now  gods.  The  first 
of  the  mortals,  Yama — '  who  first  went  over  the  great 
mountains  and  spied  out  a  path  for  many,  who  found 
us  a  way  of  which  we  shall  not  be  frustrated ' — Yama 
the  King  sits  under  a  tree  with  Varuna  the  righteous 
god.  The  Fathers  are  gathered  around  him,  drinking 
nectar,  enjoying  the  libations  of  the   living,  enjoying 


VIII        REINCARNATION  AND  KARMA       305 

also — and  this  point  is  worthy  of  notice — their  own 
pious  works,  their  sacrifices  and  their  gifts,  especially 
their  gifts  to  the  priests.  The  abode  of  the  Fathers 
is  an  immortal,  unending  world,  '  There  make  me 
immortal,'  says  the  Vedic  poet,  '  where  exist  delight, 
joy,  rejoicing,  and  joyance,  where  wishes  are  obtained.' 
It  is  not  a  spiritual  paradise.  Whatever  poetical 
descriptions  we  may  find,  '  supreme  luminous  regions, 
middle  sky,  third  heaven,  lap  of  the  red  dawns,'  the 
pleasures  of  the  Fathers  are  essentially  mundane  ones  ; 
rivers  of  mead,  milk,  and  waters,  pools  of  butter  with 
banks  of  honey,  also  Apsarases  or  celestial  damsels.  The 
dead  were  happy  ;  their  life  was  worthy  to  be  lived."  ^ 

Professor  Poussin  is  concerned  to  account  for  the 
ascetic  religious  "disciplines"  which  arose  about  the 
seventh  century  B.C.,  and,  contrasting  them  with  the 
early  religion  of  the  Vedas,  says  : — 

"  One  sees  how  radical  a  change  was  necessary  for 
asceticism  and  the  disciplines  of  salvation  to  be  possible. 
.  .  .  What  were  the  causes  of  this  change  .''...  To 
begin  with,  we  must  not  forget  that  the  Sanscrit-speak- 
ing peoples,  the  priestly  and  feudal  aristocracy  who 
created  the  disciplines  of  salvation,  were  no  longer  of 
unmixed  Aryan  race,  as  the  old  poets  of  the  Vedas,  but 
a  mixture  of  Aryas  and  of  the  aborigines.  ...  It  is 
certain  that  the  '  intellectual '  Aryas,  at  the  time  of 
the  compilation  of  the  Rigveda  and  later  on,  did  not 
feel  as  their  ancestors  did.  .  .  .  This  aristocracy  was 
likely  to  borrow  from  the  aborigines,  and  from  the 
mass  of  the  Aryan  people  in  daily  contact  with  the 
aborigines,  many  superstitions  or  beliefs  —  confused 
notions  connected  with  penance,  ecstasy,  reincarnations. 
.  .  .  Such  notions,  it  is  certain,  they  borrowed  :  this 
can  be  proved  in  many  cases.  .  .  .  The  change  we  are 
studying  is,  to  a  large  extent,  not  a  revolution,  but  an 
evolution  ;  and  the  safest  way  to  understand  it  is 
perhaps  to  describe  it  as  an  autonomous  alteration  of 

^   The  H-'ay  of  Nirvana,  pp.  12-14. 

X 


3o6  IMMORTALITY  viii 

the  genuine  Aryan  beliefs  and  notions.  The  Brahmans, 
endowed  with  an  equal  genius  for  conservation  and 
adaptation,  were  the  workers  of  the  change.  .  .  .  The 
Brahmans  were,  by  profession,  busied  with  gods, 
sacrifice,  and  ritual.  After  a  time,  before  even  the 
Rigveda  was  compiled,  they  became  philosophers."  ^ 

An  interesting  account  of  the  course  of  their  thought 
as  it  may  be  conjectured  from  evidence  in  the  Upanishads, 
is  given  by  Dr.  J.  N.  Farquhar  : — 

"  This  theory,  that  a  man's  health  and  fortune  in 
this  life  are  the  recompense  of  his  deeds  (in  this  life), 
has  been  held  by  many  other  early  peoples,  notably 
by  early  Israel.  But  facts  are  too  stubborn  for  such 
a  theory  :  clearly  it  is  not  true.  The  stage  in  Israel's 
history  when  the  old  belief  became  incredible  comes 
vividly  before  us  in  the  Book  of  Job.  We  may  con- 
jecture that  at  the  time  when  the  transmigration  theory 
came  to  the  notice  of  the  Indo-Aryans,  they  had  by 
experience  found  the  theory  of  material  recompense  in 
this  life  untenable,  and  that  they  seized  on  the  idea 
of  transmigration  as  a  means  of  solving  the  problem. 
But  all  this  is  but  conjecture.  We  know  only  that 
in  the  '  Brihadaranyaka  '  and  '  Chhandogya  Upanishads  ' 
a  few  of  the  more  advanced  men  teach,  as  a  new  and 
precious  truth,  the  doctrine  that  as  a  man  sows  in  this 
life  he  will  reap  in  another. 

"  From  these  passages  it  seems  clear  that  the  doctrine 
was  first  thought  out  and  stated  with  reference  to  the 
future,  and  that  it  was  some  little  time  before  reflection 
led  to  the  further  thought,  that  a  man's  present 
circumstances  and  experience  are  the  recompense  of 
his  behaviour  in  past  lives.  Then  this  train  of  thought, 
carried  farther  both  backward  and  forward,  would  in- 
evitably lead  to  the  conclusion  that  the  series  of  lives 
can  have  neither  beginning  nor  end." 

With  regard  to  the  desire  for  release  from  this  chain 
of  rebirths,  he  remarks  : — 

^   The  Way  of  Nir-vana,  pp.  16-19. 


VIII        REINCARNATION  AND  KARMA       307 

"  When  reflection  had  made  some  progress,  men 
began  to  regard  these  many  lives  as  most  undesirable, 
and  to  long  for  emancipation  from  the  necessity  of 
rebirth.  When  this  unexpected  change  occurred,  men 
began  to  deplore  their  own  good  deeds,  because  they 
led  to  rebirth  as  surely  as  their  evil  deeds  ;  so,  that 
which  originally  was  the  highest  possible  reward  became 
hated." ' 

As  it  thus  appears  in  the  original  Hindu  philosophy 
it  would  seem  that  the  doctrine  of  Karma  was  first  and 
foremost  an  attempt  to  solve  the  moral  problem — the 
problem  discussed  at  length  in  the  Book  of  Job — of  the 
glaring  injustice  apparent  in  this  life  in  the  matter  of 
individual  merit  and  prosperity.  Why  is  it  that  some 
are  born  to  lives  of  hardship,  misery,  disease,  and  failure, 
others  to  lives  of  ease,  prosperity,  and  fulness  of  oppor- 
tunity .''  Ought  not  this  difference,  if  it  exists  at  all, 
to  have  some  close  correspondence  with  differences  in 
degree  of  goodness  or  badness  in  the  character  or  lives 
of  the  persons  concerned  ^  The  Indian  philosophers 
explained  the  enigma  by  the  hypothesis  that  seemingly 
unmerited  misfortunes  in  this  life  are  really  the  punish- 
ment for  wickedness  in  a  previous  existence,  while 
seemingly  undeserved  prosperity  in  this  life  is  the  due 
reward  for  goodness  in  a  previous  existence. 

Sin  and  Suffering 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  doctrine  of  Karma  takes  for 
granted  that  wrong  action  both  ought  to  be  and  can  be 
expiated  by  suffering.  This  idea  is  not  confined  to 
Hindus  or  Theosophists.  It  is  implicit  in  the  tradi- 
tional, but,  as  is  shown  elsewhere  in  this  volume,^  the 
really  unscriptural,  conception  of  Hell  ;  and  it  is  the 
view  of  the  functions  of  the  pains  of  Purgatory  of 
which  Suarez  is  the  most  notable  exponent,  and  which 

1   The  Croivti  of  Hinduism,  by  J.  N.  Farquhar,  D.Litt.,  pp.  136-137,  138. 
2  Essay  V. 


3o8  IMMORTALITY  viii 

has  prevailed  almost  universally  in  the  Roman  Church. 
Indeed,  it  has  been  very  widely  held  until  compara- 
tively modern  times,  and  it  cannot  be  said  that  the 
reaction  against  it  is  by  any  means  complete  even 
among  enlightened  statesmen,  philosophers,  or  theo- 
logians. Nevertheless,  I  believe  it  to  be  as  funda- 
mentally unsound  as  it  is  antagonistic  to  the  best 
modern  thought  upon  human  justice.  In  spite  of  the 
eminence  of  some  of  the  names  of  those  who  still 
uphold  it,  I  would  maintain  that  the  vindictive  or 
retributive  theory  of  punishment,  which  requires  that 
suffering  be  proportioned  to  sin,  is  in  the  last  resort  a 
relic  of  the  primitive  savagery  which  confused  justice 
with  vengeance  and  then  attributed  its  own  conception 
of  justice  to  the  divine. 

The  requirement  of  a  moral  universe  is  that  sin 
once  committed  should  at  all  costs  be  removed — i.e. 
the  injury  inflicted  must  be  made  good  and  the  sinner 
must  be  made  righteous.  But  how  is  this  to  be  done .? 
Does  the  torture  of  the  sinner  accomplish  it  ^ 

To  answer  this  a  slight  analysis  of  the  theory  of 
human  punishment  is  necessary. 

It  is  evident — no  one  would  dispute  it — that  legal 
and  domestic  punishments,  which  are  based  on  the 
retributive  theory,  have  been  a  very  useful  social  device  : 
(<?)  as  an  emphatic  expression  of  moral  opinion  where 
it  has  so  far  made  for  itself  no  other  mode  of  expres- 
sion ;  (^)  as  deterrent — helping  to  prevent  wrongdoing 
by  fear  ;  {c)  as  arresting  a  sinner  on  a  heady  course 
and  evoking  reflection. 

In  all  these  ways  social  and  domestic  punishment 
has  been  an  immense  advance  on  moral  anarchy.  But 
the  questions  we  have  to  ask  are  : 

(i)  Does  the  suffering  of  the  sinner  do  away  with 
the  injury  his  sin  has  done  to  others  } 

(2)  Have  we  any  reason  to  believe  that  the  suffering 
of  the  sinner  does  away  with  the  consequences  of  the 
sin  in  his  own  soul  ? 


VIII        REINCARNATION  AND  KARMA       309 

(3)  Have  we  any  reason  to  believe  that  there  is  any 
law  in  the  universe  by  which  suffering  is  meted  out  to 
the  sinner  in  proportion  to  his  sin  ? 

(i)  The  answer  to  the  first  question  is,  of  course, 
in  the  negative,  A  reformed  sinner  may  sometimes 
do  much  to  make  amends  in  this  world,  and  if  he  can 
influence  in  the  immortal  life  those  whom  he  has  injured 
in  this,  may,  by  God's  help,  more  than  repay  his  victims  ; 
but  it  is  not  by  any  torment  he  can  endure  that  he  will 
make  good  their  injuries.  He  must  first  be  recreated. 
But  how  is  this  to  be  done  .''  This  leads  us  to  our 
second  point. 

(2)  Do  the  sinner's  torments  recreate  his  own  soul, 
i.e.  make  him  good.'*  Certain  facts  have  to  be  recognised. 
{a)  Experience  shows  that  where  a  character  is  not 
specially  vicious  or  criminal  but  has  a  tendency  either  to 
arrogance  or  to  frivolity,  it  often  happens  that  a  sharp 
rebuke  or  penalty  acts  as  a  steadying  and  sobering  influ- 
ence. But  this  result  ensues  only  when  the  character  is 
fundamentally  sound.  It  *'  brings  people  to  their  senses," 
we  say — implying  truly  that  the  sense  is  there  all  the 
while  underneath,  (b)  Yet  again,  suff^ering  faced  cheer- 
fully and  heroically  undoubtedly  ennobles  the  character  ; 
but  it  cannot  be  too  often  emphasised  that  it  is  not  the 
sufi^ering  itself,  but  the  way  in  which  it  is  faced,  that 
produces  this  result.  Suffering  per  se  does  not  ennoble 
or  purify  ;  on  the  contrary,  unless  it  is  met  in  the  right 
spirit  it  inevitably  hardens  and  degrades.  The  extent 
to  which  suffering  elevates  is  in  exact  proportion  to  the 
original  goodness  of  the  character.  He  of  whom  it  is 
said  that  "He  was  made  perfect  by  suffering"  is  the 
same  of  whom  also  it  is  said  that  He  was  "  without  sin." 
(c)  Punishment,  again — i.e.  the  infliction  of  suffering  as 
the  penalty  for  wrongdoing,  whether  by  parent,  school- 
master, or  magistrate — often  has  salutary  results.  But 
all  experience  in  educational  or  criminal  reform  shows 
that  the  less  there  is  of  penal  infliction  of  pain  upon  the 
offender,  and  the  more  elevating  personal  influences  can 


3IO  IMMORTALITY  vm 

be  brought  to  bear  instead,  the  more  effective  the  results. 
Above  all,  it  is  found  that  unless  the  opprobrium  ex- 
pressed by  the  infliction  of  punishment  is  regarded  by  the 
offender  as  "just" — not  perhaps  at  first,  but  ultimately 
— the  punishment  hardens  and  degrades  instead  of 
elevating.  Excessive  punishments  may,  indeed,  operate 
as  a  deterrent ;  they  may  make  a  particular  offence  too 
dangerous  to  be  worth  risking ;  but  they  cannot  produce 
a  change  of  mind  in  the  offender  v/hich  makes  him 
cease  to  desire  to  commit  it  or  condemn  himself  for 
desiring  to  do  so  or  prevent  him  doing  it  v^^hen  risk  of 
detection  seems  small.  On  the  contrary,  they  rather 
tend  to  arouse  in  him  moral  condemnation  of  the  power 
which  punishes  as  being  merely  oppressive.  That  is  to 
say,  they  have  no  moral  value.  The  moral  value  of 
punishment  depends  on  the  degree  to  which  the  individual 
recognises  the  punishment  as  just,  that  is,  as  being  the 
expression  by  the  punisher  or  the  community  of  a  moral 
principle  to  which  he  himself  assents.  But  it  is  the 
element  of  good  in  him,  shown  by  his  assent  to  the 
principle  and  the  consequent  way  in  which  he  reacts 
towards  the  inflicted  pain,  not  the  inflicted  pain  per  se, 
which  reforms  him.  And  this  is  made  none  the  less 
true  by  the  fact  that,  in  many  cases,  without  some 
strong  reminder  of  the  moral  principle  and  of  the  dis- 
approval of  its  infraction  by  the  community,  he  would 
have  gone  on  uninterruptedly  in  his  old  courses.  Fichte 
well  distinguishes  between  Punishment  properly  so  called 
and  Outlawry,  and  he  argues  that  the  logical  treatment 
of  one  who  offends  gravely  against  the  law  of  the  well- 
being  of  the  community  is  outlawry,  i.e.  his  complete 
elimination,  whether  by  death  or  otherwise,  from  that 
society.  Punishment,  on  the  other  hand,  is  the  inflic- 
tion of  something  less  than  outlawry,  in  the  hope  that  the 
offender  may  yet  live  to  conform  to  the  law.  Common 
feeling  supports  this  view  ;  when  a  criminal  is  con- 
demned to  death  the  rigours  of  prison  diet  and  dis- 
cipline are  relaxed  ;   another  chance  in  this  life  being 


VIII       REINCARNATION  AND  KARMA       311 

denied  him,  it  is  felt  that  further  punishment  is  useless 
cruelty.  So,  too,  as  is  argued  elsewhere  in  this  volume,^ 
if  any  soul  continues  to  set  itself  in  hostility,  in  this 
world  and  the  next,  to  the  Divine  goodness,  annihilation, 
not  endless  torment,  seems  the  only  end  compatible 
with  justice. 

In  the  interests  of  society  penalties  which  are  purely 
deterrent,  and,  in  the  last  resort,  complete  annihilation, 
may  be  justified  while  society  has  no  better  method  of 
moral  education.  But  punishment,  in  its  truest  and 
highest  sense,  must  have  in  view  the  possible  reclama- 
tion of  the  offender.  Reformatory  punishment  implies 
that  the  person  punished  is  a  being  who  knows  that 
he  has  offended  against  a  moral  principle.  You  do 
not  punish  a  sow  who — as  occasionally  happens — 
devours  her  young  alive  ;  you  do  punish  a  human 
mother  who  even  neglects  her  children.  Only  in  so  far 
as  the  criminal  is  capable  of  recognising  that  he  has  done 
wrong — i.e.  only  in  so  far  as  there  is  still  alive  in  him  a 
certain  amount  of  moral  insight — is  there  any  likeli- 
hood of  the  penalty  having  a  reformatory  effect.  The 
more  morally  degraded  a  person  is,  the  less  of  such 
moral  insight  remains,  and  the  more  likely  is  he  to 
regard  the  penalty  as  unjust,  as  being  merely  the  tyran- 
nical infliction  of  a  hostile  power,  and  hence  to  become 
a  more  embittered  enemy  of  society  than  before.  This 
is  true  when  the  soul  remembers  its  wrongdoing  ;  but 
Karma  brings  pain  to  bear  on  the  soul  that  has  forgotten 
its  past,  and  which,  therefore,  cannot  recognise  the  sin- 
fulness of  its  past,  and  it  brings  the  heaviest  pain  on 
the  souls  who  are  most  degraded.  We  all  recognise 
that  to  punish  a  man  who  had  lost  both  memory  and 
moral  insight  would  be  futile  ;  therefore  Karma,  in  its 
essence,  is  not  disciplinary  or  purgative,  but  vindictive." 

^  Essay  V.  pp.  216-217. 

-  In  justice  to  their  capacity  for  clear  thought  it  is  only  fair  to  notice  that  in 
Indian  philosophy  Karma  is  frankly  thought  of  as  involving  punishment  of  the 
"  vindictive  "  type.  It  is  only  modern  interpreters  who  by  reading  into  it  a  purga- 
torial conception  have,  in  order  to  save  its  morality,  made  it  logically  absurd. 


312  IMMORTALITY  viii 

From  this  analysis  of  the  human  theory  of  punish- 
ment we  see  that  while  the  purely  vindictive  or  retri- 
butive theory  assumes  that  Justice  with  her  scales 
demands  an  almost  mechanically  weighed-out  equivalent 
of  suffering  to  expiate  so  much  sin,  the  application  of 
such  a  theory  to  practice  leads,  not  to  the  decrease  of 
iniquity,  but  to  its  increase.  This  conception  of  Justice 
required  revision,  and  in  fact  it  has  been  revised  by  a 
large  consensus  of  modern  opinion. 

Our  answer,  then,  to  the  question.  Can  suffering  do 
away  with  sin  .''  is  in  the  negative.  Sin  can  only  be  can- 
celled— that  is  to  say,  its  results,  in  so  far  as  they  take 
the  form  of  the  degradation  of  the  soul  that  sins — can 
only  be  wiped  out  by  a  change  of  heart,  which,  again, 
only  takes  place  by  the  conscious  experience  of  a  fresh 
access  of  love  to  good  or  God.  The  only  thing  that 
can  do  away  with  moral  badness  in  the  soul  is  something 
which  replaces  that  moral  badness  by  moral  goodness. 
Only  by  saving  a  sinner  out  of  a  condition  of  sin  into  a 
condition  of  active  moral  goodness  can  he  be  saved  from 
the  results  of  sin  ;  only  by  active  beneficence,  inspired 
by  divine  wisdom,  can  he  counterbalance  the  harm  his 
sin  has  done  to  others.  It  is  therefore  only  by  active 
goodness,  both  of  God  and  man — God  giving,  man 
responding  —  that  evil  can  be  remedied.  A  certain 
form  of  suffering  accompanies  all  reformation  ;  for 
repentance  implies  sorrow  for  the  past,  and  this  often 
involves  very  acute  suffering.  But  the  essential  differ- 
ence between  true  repentance  and  the  notion  of  expia- 
tion by  mere  suffering,  is  that  repentance,  with  its 
correlative  forgiveness,  has  in  it  also  an  element  of 
refreshment  and  joy — the  joy  of  a  psychic  re-creation 
into  a  freer  and  nobler  life.  When  Jesus  Christ  said 
of  a  woman,  "  Her  sins  which  are  many  are  forgiven 
her,  for  she  loved  much,"  He  clearly  taught  that  the 
basis  of  her  salvation  was  not  suffering,  but  the  love  in 
the  woman's  soul  for  the  goodness  she  saw  in  the  heart 
of  Jesus.     We  know  this  to  be  true  in  everyday  life. 


VIII       REINCARNATION  AND  KARMA       313 

Reformation  of  character  depends  on  a  fresh  access  of 
love  for  goodness,  and  is  the  outward  aspect  of  the 
inward  grace  of  forgiveness  ;  for  all  goodness  is  ulti- 
mately of  God,  and  God's  forgiveness  is  not  the  remitting 
of  some  arbitrary  penalty,  but  the  gift  of  His  good 
Spirit  to  the  repentant  soul.  The  soul  that  can  go  out 
of  itself  in  love  is  already  on  the  upward  path  because 
it  is  already  joined  to  God. 

(3)  Our  third  question  was  whether  we  have  reason 
to  believe  it  to  be  a  law  of  the  universe  that  the  suffer- 
ing of  the  sinner  is  in  proportion  to  his  sin.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  so  far  as  we  can  observe,  the  results  of 
wrongdoing  in  human  life  are  not  proportionate  suffer- 
ing, but  proportionate  degradation.  Degradation,  of 
course,  involves  some  suffering,  but  the  suffering  is 
most  acute  in  the  initial  stages  of  degeneracy.  It  is 
certainly  not  cumulative,  nor  is  it  intensified  as  the  man 
continues  the  downward  path.  The  blear-eyed,  half- 
paralysed  drunkard,  who  has  given  up  all  moral  conflict, 
is  very  uncomfortable,  but  is  not  able  to  suffer  as  acutely 
as  he  did  when  he  took  the  first  wrong  steps  ;  and  he 
does  not  begin  to  be  capable  of  the  same  acute  suffer- 
ing as  his  innocent  and  high-minded  wife  feels  on  his 
behalf.  Nor  is  his  degeneracy  merely  that  of  deadened 
nerves.  He  will  be  found  to  have  become  more  and 
more  selfish,  more  and  more  incapable  of  recognising 
the  claims  of  other  people  in  relation  to  his  own.  In 
many  cases  he  becomes  egotistical  and  dishonest,  with 
shorter  and  shorter  intervals  of  maudlin  repentance. 
This  is  a  case  where  degeneracy  and  its  accompanying 
callousness  are  easily  seen  ;  but  exactly  the  same  growth 
of  degeneracy  and  callousness  can  be  traced  in  any 
habitually  immoral  life.  No  egoist  knows  that  he  is 
one,  and  so  he  may  complain  loudly  of  the  inexplicable 
loss  of  friends  that  his  egoism  brings  him  ;  but  though 
he  whine  and  brood,  it  is  obvious  that  he  becomes 
hardened  to  all  that  makes  the  acutest  suffering  of 
noble  souls,  just  as  he  becomes  callous  to  their  acute 


314  IMMORTALITY  viii 

enjoyments.  The  more  a  soul  becomes  enriched, 
ennobled,  and  consequently  purified,  the  more  it  be- 
comes capable  of  intense  delight  and  intense  sorrow  ;  but 
wrongdoing  has  a  disintegrating  effect,  not  only  on  the 
body  but  the  mind.  Coarseness,  obliquity,  brutality, 
inevitably  come  in  its  train,  but  not  anything  that  deserves 
to  be  called  intense  suffering.  True  suffering  in  the 
sinner  appears  to  be  due  quite  as  much  to  the  upward 
beat  of  the  wing  as  to  the  descent ;  while  the  greatest 
suffering  must  always  be  experienced  by  the  highest 
natures,  who  also  are  alone  capable  of  the  greatest  joy.^ 
Again,  let  us  ask  ourselves  what  our  innate  power 
of  appreciating  truth  has  to  say,  in  the  face  of  fact,  to 
this  theory  that  all  suffering  is  deserved.  Can  any 
normally  constituted  father  or  mother,  seeing  a  little 
child  in  the  grasp  of  some  cruel  physical  disease,  believe 
that  the  child  is  expiating  some  hideous  crime  ?  More- 
over, how  can  those  who  are  able  to  comfort  themselves 
with  the  conviction  that  the  drab  lives  and  painful 
privations  of  the  poor  are  always  deserved,  ever  clearly 
perceive  their  own  responsibility  for  righting  great 
social  wrongs  ?  Indeed,  the  doctrine  of  Karma,  which 
explains  that  a  man  is  born  a  Brahman  as  a  reward,  or 
an  Outcaste  as  a  punishment,  for  his  deeds  in  a  former 
life,  supplies  the  Hindu  with  a  moral  justification  of 
the  system  of  Caste. 

Karma  embodies  False  Notion  of  Justice 

The  doctrine  of  Karma  was  an  advance  on  what 
preceded  it.  The  Brahmans  who  conceived  it  made  a 
splendid  hypothesis  and  raised  a  trivial  conception  of 
the  moral  world  into  grandeur.  But  their  hypothesis 
has  been  found  inadequate  to  express  the  facts.  They 
assumed  the  "  vindictive  "  theory  that  in  the  individual 
life  suffering  ought  to  be  proportionate  to  sin  ;  so  that 

^  The  subject  of  sin  and  suffering  is  more  fully  treated  in  the  Essay  on  "  Repent- 
ance and  Hope  "  in  Concerning  Prayer. 


VIII        REINCARNATION  AND  KARMA       315 

they  added  nothing  to  the  explanation  given  by  earlier 
thinkers  of  the  problem  of  suffering,  they  only  enlarged 
the  sweep  of  the  still  more  primitive  explanation. 
Primitive  man  says  that  the  gods  punish  the  sinner 
here  and  now — we  see  this  in  the  Old  Testament  ;  later, 
he  says  that  they  punish  him  in  another  world — we  see 
this  stage  reached  in  Jewish  Apocalyptic ;  the  philo- 
sophers of  Karma  said  that  in  a  thousand  earthly  lives 
he  would  be  punished.  The  problem  of  evil  is  larger 
than  the  problem  of  suffering  ;  it  asks  why,  if  the 
Power  manifested  in  the  universe  be  good,  should  any 
living  soul  be  so  constituted  and  environed  that  it  will 
choose  to  do  wrong  and  thus  cause  suffering.''  To 
this  the  thinkers  who  conceived  of  Karma  gave  no 
answer,  unless  it  was  that  the  experience  of  wrong- 
doing is  necessary  for  the  soul's  development. 

We  must  respect  the  real  effort  this  philosophy 
makes  to  vindicate  the  moral  government  of  the 
universe,  though  it  fails  to  vindicate  it.  If  the  experi- 
ence of  wrongdoing  be  necessary  for  the  soul's  moral 
growth,  how  unjust  to  punish  by  age-long  suffering  ; 
if  it  is  not  necessary,  then  this  philosophy  offers  no 
explanation  of  the  existence  of  evil.  We  have  seen 
that  suffering  neither  makes  the  bad  man  righteous  nor 
makes  good  the  injury  he  has  done.  So  that  the  law 
of  Karma,  if  it  held  good,  would  not  point  to  a  moral 
government  of  the  world. 

Intellectually,  the  strong  point  of  Karma  is  its 
insistence  on  the  reign  of  law  in  the  moral  sphere — on 
the  fact  that  an  action  inevitably  produces  its  inherent 
consequences,  good  if  the  act  be  good,  evil  if  the  act 
be  evil.  But  we  have  discovered  that  the  necessary 
and  inherent  consequences  of  evil  action  are  the  degrada- 
tion or  degeneration  of  the  sinner,  which  lessens  his 
capacity  to  suffer  ;  and  its  most  usual  results  are  mis- 
fortune for  the  innocent  and  grief  for  the  noble-minded. 
Thus  we  conclude  that  law  does  rule  in  the  moral 
sphere,  but   that   it   is   not   the   law   set   forth  jjby   the 


3i6  IMMORTALITY  viii 

doctrine  of  Karma.  These  Hindu  philosophers  failed 
to  see  how  progress  is  actually  achieved  in  the  moral 
life.  The  whole  process  of  progress,  as  we  see  it  in 
this  life,  would  need  to  be  reversed  to  fit  into  their 
theory  ;  for  in  this  life  the  soul  progresses  when  the 
capacity  alike  for  sorrow  and  for  joy  increases,  and 
goes  backward  as  sensibility  to  either  diminishes.  The 
greater  part  of  the  pain  resulting  from  sin  falls — as 
the  early  Hebrews  saw — on  children's  children,  i.e.  on 
the  innocent.  It  falls  also,  and  with  sharpest  stroke, 
on  the  noblest  souls.  It  is  Moses  who  was  agonised  by 
Israel's  sin,  while  the  people  were  satisfied  with  them- 
selves ;  and  we  are  sure  that  Absalom  was  incapable  of 
the  pain  which  David  suffered  when  he  cried,  "  Would 
God! I  had  died  for  thee,  my  son  !  my  son  !  " 

If  the  believer  in  Karma  holds  that  all  human 
suffering  is  the  direct  result  of  the  sin  of  the  sufferer, 
he  must  frankly  hold  it  on  the  mere  verbal  authority 
of  Sages  or  Adepts,  for  there  is  nothing  in  known  fact  to 
corroborate  it.  But,  assuming  for  the  sake  of  argument 
that  it  is  true,  let  us  ask  if,  carefully  considered,  it 
really  appears  just.  According  to  this  doctrine  the 
Supreme  Being  permits  fallible  beings  to  be  born  into 
this  world  of  temptation  with  sensuous  natures  which 
necessarily  lead  them  at  first  to  place  a  mistaken  value 
upon  sensuous  pleasures.  If  they  fall,  the  universe  is 
such  that  they  incur  suffering,  and  if  they  do  not 
reform  under  this  suffering  in  successive  lives,  it  grows 
more  and  more  severe  while  they  grow  less  and  less 
able  to  profit  by  it.  Thus  it  may  be  endlessly  pro- 
longed. That  is  the  law  of  Karma,  and  I  submit  that, 
candidly  considered,  it  offends  the  instinct  of  justice  in 
any  healthy  mind  that  believes  in  God.  The  fact  that 
Christian  thinkers  have  often  taught  as  crude  and  cruel 
a  doctrine  of  the  Divine  government  of  the  world  does 
not  make  the  law  of  Karma,  as  expounded  by  Theosophy, 
more  just.  It  portrays  horrible  injustice  on  the  part  of 
a  Divine  Power,  who  binds  fallible  men  upon  the  wheel 


VIII  MODERN  THEOSOPHY  317 

of  time  and  offers  them  no  escape  but  by  toilsome  effort 
and  the  fire  of  suffering,  while  He  Himself  holds  aloof 
both  from  effort  and  suffering. 

Prophets  of  deeper  insight,  pondering  on  the  mystery 
of  God  and  man,  came  to  think  that  if  the  God  who 
originated  both  fallible  men  and  the  earth  on  which 
they  are  bound,  shared  their  suffering  and  offered  them 
the  immediate  escape  of  forgiveness  and  restoration 
when  they  fell,  exerting  His  own  energy  to  supply  their 
lack  of  moral  power,  and  afterwards  compensating  them 
with  fuller  joy,  the  scheme — although  still  mysterious — 
could  not  be  conceived  as  unjust  ;  for  the  Supreme 
Power  would  be  taking  the  responsibility  and  sorrow 
on  Himself,  and  giving  to  men  in  the  end  what  would 
repay  their  effort  and  distress.  The  fact  that  the 
noblest  souls,  capable  of  the  greatest  joy,  grow  also  in 
the  power  of  sorrow,  leads  us  to  perceive  that  sorrow 
is  divine.  Such  a  God  we  recognise  to  have  been 
preached  by  Jesus  Christ,  and  exemplified  in  His  own 
suffering  and  death  ;  but  we  get  no  hint  of  this  sort 
of  Divine  suffering  and  exertion,  or  of  the  offer  of 
immediate  escape  and  of  personal  care  and  compensa- 
tion, in  the  law  of  Karma,  which  offers  no  real  justifica- 
tion for  the  ways  of  God  to  men. 


PART  II.— MODERN  THEOSOPHY 
Theosophy  as  a  Religion 

The  Buddhists  accepted  the  belief  in  Karma  and 
Metempsychosis  from  the  Brahmans,  and  it  was  from 
Buddhism,  to  begin  with,  that  the  founders  of  the 
modern  Theosophical  Society  took  these  doctrines  and 
preached  them  in  modern  Europe.  Along  with  these 
theories  they  taught  a  harmony  of  all  religions,  and  a 
path  of  salvation  by  which  the  evolution  of  the  soul 
toward  bliss  may  be  hastened,  and  other  beliefs,  chiefly 
Indian  in  origin,  but  partly  neo-Platonic. 


3i8  IMMORTALITY  viii 

The  success  of  the  Theosophical  Society  in  attracting 
numbers  of  pure-hearted  and  earnest-minded  Christians 
is,  I  believe,  due  to  two  things — (a)  the  emphasis  laid 
upon  disinterested  love  and  fellowship,  and  (i*)  the 
control  over  self  and  circumstances  which  its  disciples 
often  exhibit. 

(a)  The  emphasis  laid  on  love  and  fellowship  as  the 
first  essential  of  the  spiritual  life  is  far  in  advance,  not 
of  Christian  principle,  nor  of  the  highest  ideal  of  the 
Hebrew  prophets,  but  of  the  bulk  of  Old  Testament 
righteousness  which  was,  and  is,  constantly  taught  in 
our  Sunday  Schools  and  Churches  under  the  name  of 
Christianity.  I  may  confirm  this  assertion  by  reference 
to  the  value  still  attached  in  many  circles  to  the 
imprecatory  Psalms  and  the  widespread  opposition  to 
their  being  omitted  from  the  daily  services  of  the 
Church,  a  proposal  which  has  only  quite  recently 
gained  any  concerted  support.  With  regard  to  the 
right  attitude  of  mind  toward  an  enemy,  the  Buddhist 
doctrine  that  "  hatred  ceaseth  not  by  hatred  at  any 
time  but  only  by  love,"  teaches  a  reaction  of  the 
virtuous  mind  against  sin  probably  more  effectual  and 
nearer  to  truth  and  the  mind  of  Christ  than  the 
"  righteous  anger "  so  generally  exalted  as  a  primary 
virtue  by  Western  Christianity.  The  insistence  on  love 
to  all  as  necessary  to  the  path  of  salvation  draws  saintly 
minds  to  Theosophy. 

{l>)  Theosophy  also  teaches  as  part  of  the  way  of 
salvation,  definite  habits  of  auto-suggestion  by  which 
certain  forms  of  self-control  and  control  over  others 
are  actually  obtained.  Serenity  and  helpfulness  acquired 
by  a  discipline  of  concentration  and  contemplation, 
produce  a  happiness  little  known  to  the  average 
worried  and  careworn  Western  mind,  and  this  throws 
a  glamour  over  Oriental  beliefs  concerning  the  life  after 
death  which  those  beliefs,  dispassionately  considered  by 
themselves,  would  not  possess.  One  turns  from  the 
perusal  of  certain  books  written  by  Theosophists  upon 


VIII  MODERN  THEOSOPHY  319 

the  way  of  salvation  with  the  conviction  that  here 
are  ideals  of  the  duties  and  privileges  of  life  on  earth, 
of  the  soul's  passage  through  discarnate  heavenly  states, 
and  of  its  final  goal,  very  much  nobler  than  the  complex 
of  lower  Old  Testament  and  Apocalyptic  ideals  so  often 
set  forth  as  Christianity.  It  is  the  bigoted  persistence 
of  our  religious  teachers  in  perpetuating  such  lower 
ideals  which  is  the  true  cause  of  most  of  our  modern 
heresies. 

But  to  dwell  on  the  religious  aspect  of  Theosophy 
would  be  irrelevant  to  our  subject,  which  is  the  views 
of  Theosophists  on  the  after-life,  and  in  discussing  the 
theories  of  the  after-life  set  forth  by  the  Theosophical 
Society  it  is  no  part  of  our  work  to  criticise  the  circum- 
stances of  its  foundation  or  the  character  of  its  founder 
or  present  leaders.  We  are  concerned  only  to  examine 
the  grounds  on  which  it  endorses  the  Oriental  doctrines 
of  the  life  after  death  which  it  is  spreading  in 
Christendom. 

We  have  to  examine  : 

(i)  Their  claim  to  base  their  belief  on  occult 
knowledge. 

(2)  The  claim  of  Theosophy  to  be  the  nucleus  of  all 
religions. 

(3)  The  conception  of  personality  involved  in  their 
view. 

(i)  The  Claim  to  Occult  Knowledge 
The  Claim  as  made 

The  Theosophical  teachers  are  not  content  to 
speculate  ;  they  assert  that  they  know.  William  Q. 
Judge,  one  of  their  American  founders,  says  : — 

"  Theosophy  is  sometimes  called  the  Wisdom- 
Religion,  because  from  immemorial  time  it  has  had 
knowledge  of  all  the  laws  governing  the  spiritual, 
the  moral,  and  the  material.  The  theory  of  nature 
and  of  life  which  it  offers  is  not  one  that  was  at  first 


320  IMMORTALITY  viii 

speculatively  laid  down  and  then  proved  by  adjusting 
facts  or  conclusions  to  fit  it  ;  but  is  an  explanation  of 
existence,  cosmic  and  individual,  derived  from  know- 
ledge reached  by  those  who  have  acquired  the  power 
to  see  behind  the  curtain  that  hides  the  operations  of 
nature  from  the  ordinary  mind.  Such  Beings  are  called 
Sages,  using  the  term  in  its  highest  sense.  Of  late 
they  have  been  called  Mahatm^s  and  Adepts."  ^ 

Similarly,  Mrs.  Besant  testifies  as  to  the  method  by 
which  it  is  possible  for  Theosophists  to  discover  and 
reveal  the  working  of  the  divine  mind  as  seen  in  the 
universe  : — 

"  Theosophy  accepts  the  method  of  Science — observa- 
tion, experiment,  arrangement  of  ascertained  facts, 
induction,  hypothesis,  deduction,  verification,  assertion 
of  the  discovered  truth — but  immensely  increases  its 
area.  ...  It  has  observed  that  the  condition  of  know- 
ing the  physical  universe  is  the  possession  of  a  physical 
body,  of  which  certain  parts  have  been  evolved  into 
organs  of  sense,  eyes,  ears,  etc.,  through  which  percep- 
tion of  outside  objects  is  possible.  .  .  .  The  Theosophist 
carries  on  the  same  principle  into  higher  realms."  She 
goes  on  :  "  That  there  should  be  other  spheres,  and 
other  bodies  through  which  those  spheres  can  be  known, 
is  no  more  inherently  incredible  than  that  there  is  a 
physical  sphere,  and  that  there  are  physical  bodies 
through  which  we  know  it.  The  Occultist  —  the 
student  of  the  workings  of  the  divine  Mind  in  Nature 
— asserts  that  there  are  such  spheres,  and  that  he  has 
and  uses  such  bodies.  The  following  statements  are 
made  as  results  of  investigations  carried  on  in  such 
spheres  by  the  use  of  such  bodies  by  the  writer  and 
other  Occultists ;  we  all  received  the  outline  from 
highly  developed  members  of  our  humanity,  and  have 
proved  it  true  step  by  step,  and  have  filled  in  many 
gaps  by  our  own  researches.  We,  therefore,  feel  that 
we   have   the  right  to   affirm,  on  our   own   first-hand 

^  An  Epitome  of  Theosophy,  William  Q.  Judge,  p.  2. 


viri  MODERN  THEOSOPHY  321 

experience — stretching  over  a  period  of  twenty-three 
years  in  one  case  and  twenty-five  in  another  —  that 
super-physical  research  is  practicable,  and  is  as  trust- 
worthy as  physical  research."  ^ 

It  is  on  the  evidence  of  such  experience  as  this  that 
the  Society  has  reaffirmed  the  doctrines  of  Reincarnation 
and  Karma. 

It  is  by  this  "  scientific  "  method,  too,  that  Theo- 
sophists  obtain  pictures  of  that  life  after  death  to  which 
they  are  taught  to  aspire.  E.g.:  after  describing  the 
soul's  discarnate  experiences  on  the  '* astral  plane,"  where 
it  sheds  emotion  and  desire,  Mrs.  Besant  tells  of  the 
"  mental  plane  ": — 

"  Comparatively  few  people,  at  the  present  stage  of 
evolution,  can  function  freely  in  the  mental  world, 
clothed  only  in  the  higher  and  the  mental  bodies, 
separated  from  the  physical  and  astral.  But  those 
who  can  do  so  can  tell  about  its  phenomena — an  im- 
portant matter,  since  heaven  is  a  part  of  the  mental 
world  guarded  from  all  unpleasant  intrusions.  The 
inhabitants  of  the  world  are  the  higher  ranks  of  nature- 
spirits,  called  in  the  East  Devas,  or  Shining  Ones,  and 
by  Christians,  Hebrews,  and  Muhammadans  Angels — 
the  lowest  Order  of  the  angelic  Intelligences.  These 
are  glowing  forms  with  changing  shades  of  exquisite 
colours,  whose  language  is  colour,  whose  motion  is 
melody.  The  heaven-portion  of  the  mental  world  is 
filled  with  discarnate  human  beings,  who  work  out  into 
mental  and  moral  powers  the  good  experiences  they 
have  garnered  in  their  earthly  lives.  Here  the  religious 
devotee  is  seen,  rapt  in  adoring  contemplation  of  the 
Divine  Form  he  loved  on  earth,  for  God  reveals  Him- 
self in  any  form  dear  to  the  human  heart.  .  .  .  Every 
high  activity  followed  on  earth,  every  noble  thought 
and  aspiration,  here  grow  into  flowers,  flowers  which 
contain  within  themselves  the  seeds  which  shall  later 
be   sown   on   earth.      Knowing   this,   men  may  in  this 

'   Theosopky,  by  Annie  Besant,  pp.  zi-i-T,, 

Y 


322  IMMORTALITY  viii 

world    prepare    the    seeds    of    experience    which    shall 
flower  in  heaven."  ^ 

To  any  one  who  can  take  these  extracts  au  pied  de  la 
lettre  it  must  be  rather  a  shock  to  be  told  that,  after 
a  few  centuries  of  this  heaven,  the  soul  needs  to  be 
re-born  on  earth. 

Hypnoidal  States  and  their  Content  ^ 

The  assumption  of  knowledge,  the  experience  of 
direct  vision  of  things  unknowable  by  sense  and  reason 
— such  as  described  above  by  Mrs.  Besant — has  by 
many  critics  been  met  with  outward  indifference  and 
the  tacit  accusation  of  fraud,  an  accusation  at  some 
time  or  other  levelled  at  all  religions.  This  accusation 
has  never  served  to  condemn  a  religion  with  its 
adherents  or  to  elucidate  truth  ;  for,  though  there  is 
probably  fraud  and  hypocrisy  among  the  teachers  of 
many,  perhaps  all,  religious  societies,  no  such  society 
was  ever  held  together  by  the  mere  practice  of  deceit. 

The  experience  of  being  "  caught  up  into  the  third 
heaven  "  ^  or  of  "  going  out  into  the  astral  plane,"  and 
of  so  acquiring  supposed  knowledge  in  other  planes  or 
spheres  of  being,  is  a  widespread  mental  phenomenon. 
Many  men  of  undoubted  good  faith  have  reported  such 
experience  ;  the  important  point  is  to  study  scientifically 
the  nature  of  the  mental  states  in  which  such  experience 
occurs.  It  appears  to  belong  to  the  phenomena  of 
hypnoidal  states.  In  all  religions  the  attempt  to  attain 
enlightenment  has  been  connected  with  semi-hypnotic 
states  induced  by  penances  or  intoxications  or  the 
psycho-physical  exercises  known  as  "  trance-practice." 
In  such  states  the  subject  realises  a  sense  of  liberty  and 
power  unknown  to  the  sober,  waking  consciousness.* 
In  such  states  suggestions  given  to  him,  or  self-induced, 

^   Theosop/iy,  by  Annie  Besant,  pp.  38-39. 

"^  This   section   should    be   read    in   connection   with  the  discussion  on  "  Auto- 
suggestion and  Trance,"  Essay  II.  pp.  35-40. 

'  Cf.  p.  331.  *  See  Essay  II.  p.  36. 


VIII  MODERN  THEOSOPHY  323 

operate  powerfully  in  his  immediate  future.  In  such 
states  also  he  is  subject  to  dreams  ^  that,  when  afterwards 
remembered,  appear  to  him  to  be  revelations  from  an 
objective  source.  The  "schools  of  the  prophets"  in 
all  times  and  everywhere  have  been  more  or  less  partial 
to  trance-practice.  It  is  an  essential  part  of  the  "  Path  " 
of  Indian  religion.  It  is  more  unwittingly  practised  in 
many  Christian  forms  of  devotion. 

It  is  desirable  to  have  in  mind  exactly  what  is  meant 
by  *'  trance-practice."  It  is  the  habit  of  falling  into 
self-induced  hypnoidal  conditions  of  mind,  either  as  an 
end  in  themselves,  under  the  belief  that  the  condition 
is  spiritual,  or  with  the  deliberate  intention  of  acquiring 
knowledge  or  magical  power  or  moral  discipline  or 
religious  emotion.  It  is  very  important  to  understand 
that  such  states  of  mind  are  in  no  way  supra-normal. 
The  earlier  stages  of  hypnosis  are  both  natural  and 
wholesome  ;  we  are  often  lulled  into  them  without 
recognising  the  fact.  It  is  equally  important  to  re- 
cognise clearly  that  the  powers  of  the  human  mind 
which  come  to  light  in  these,  its  quiescent,  moments — 
suggestibility,  thought-transference,  clairvoyance,  etc. 
— are  not  supernatural  but  natural,  and  that  the  state  in 
itself  is  no  more  "  spiritual  "  than  the  state  of  rational 
activity. 

Of  Hindu  trance  Professor  Poussin  says  : — 
"  It  was  admitted  that  Man  obtains,  in  semi-hypnotic 
states,  a  magical  power.  The  name  of  a  thing  is 
supposed  to  be  either  the  thing  itself  or  a  sort  of 
double  of  the  thing  ;  to  master,  during  trance,  the 
name,  is  to  master  the  thing.  Just  as  penance,  trance 
became  a  means  to  spiritual  aims.  That  is  the  case 
with  Brahmanism.  Trance  is  the  necessary  path  to  the 
merging  of  the  individual  Self  into  the  universal  Self.  .  .  . 
Buddhism  teaches  in  so  many  words  that  not  every 
trance  is  good.  A  trance  which  is  not  aimed  at  the 
right  end,  eradication  of  desire,  is  a  mundane  affair. 

*  See  Essay  VII.  pp.  261-262. 


324  IMMORTALITY  viii 

When  undertaken  with  desire,  in  order  to  obtain  either 
advantages  in  this  life,  namely  magical  powers,  or  some 
special  kind  of  rebirth,  trances  cannot  confer  any 
spiritual  advantage.  Of  course,  if  they  are  correctly 
managed,  they  succeed,  as  any  other  human  contrivance 
would  succeed.^  .  .  .  The  intention  of  the  ascetic  and 
his  moral  preparation  make  all  the  difference  between 
mundane  and  supra-mundane  trance."  For  example, 
he  says  :  "  The  monk  makes  a  disk  of  light  red  clay. 
.  .  .  Then  the  meditation  begins  ;  the  ecstatic  has  to 
look  at  the  disk  as  long  as  it  is  necessary  in  order  to 
see  it  with  closed  eyes,  that  is,  in  order  to  create  a 
mental  image  of  the  disk.  To  realise  this  aim  he  must 
contemplate  the  disk  sometimes  with  his  eyes  open, 
sometimes  with  his  eyes  shut,  and  thus  for  a  hundred 
times,  or  for  a  thousand  times,  or  even  more,  until  the 
mental  image  is  secured.  .  .  .  The  mind,  once  con- 
centrated and  strengthened  by  exercise  with  the  clay 
disk  or  any  other  exercise  of  the  same  kind^  is  successively 
to  abandon  its  content  and  its  categories.  The  ecstatic 
starts  from  a  state  of  contemplation  coupled  with 
reasoning  and  reflection  ;  he  abandons  desire,  sin,  dis- 
tractions, discursiveness,  joy,  hedonic  feeling  ;  he  goes 
beyond  any  notion  of  matter,  of  contact,  of  difference  ; 
.  .  .  finally,  he  realises  the  actual  disappearance  of  feel- 
ing and  notion.  It  is  a  lull  in  the  psychical  life  which 
coincides  with  perfect  hypnosis."  ^ 

But  there  is  more  to  be  understood.  In  our  con- 
sideration of  Spiritualism  we  saw  *  that  the  mediumistic 
condition — which,  of  course,  belongs  to  trance-practice 
— does  actually  carry  with  it  a  certain  susceptibility  to 
telepathic  knowledge,  and  a  certain  power  of  what  is 
often  called  "  clairvoyance."  There  is  good  evidence 
for  the  actual  operation  of  these  powers,  which  has 
been  carefully  recorded  and  indexed  in  the  Proceedings 

^  Much  in  what  is  called  "New  Thought"  is  illuminated  by  this. 

2  The  italics  are  mine.  ^   The  Way  of  Nirvana,  pp.  160-165. 

*  See  Essay  VII.  p.  262. 


VIII  MODERN  THEOSOPHY  325 

of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research^  and  Is  accessible 
to  all. 

There  is  also  some  evidence  of  another  power 
possessed  by  the  mind  in  an  early  stage  of  hypnosis, 
and  that  is  the  power  of  influencing  others  who  are 
passive  or  in  some  sympathetic  personal  connection. 
It  was  assumed,  on  a  priori  reasoning,  by  earlier 
investigators  of.  telepathy  that  the  agent  in  the  tele- 
pathic communication  must  exercise  determined  volition 
while  the  subject  remained  passive  ;  but  there  is  a  good 
deal  of  evidence  to  show  that  the  agent  also  must  have 
entered  a  state  of  quiescence,  or  what  is  called  "  the 
silence  of  the  soul,"  if  he  would  make  his  influence 
eff^ective.  An  experienced  medical  woman,  not  at  all 
religious  or  infected  with  mystical  notions,  once  told  me 
that  she  believed  "  absent  treatment "  by  mind-healers 
was  in  some  cases  actually  efi^ective.  She  said  she  had 
known  sudden  and  unexpected  recoveries  which  had 
synchronised  with  the  action  of  an  absent  healer  who 
worked  unknown  to  the  patient.  A  similar  body  of 
evidence  comes  from  Christian  Scientists.  My  point 
is  that  in  such  cases  the  healer  seeks  the  "  inner  silence 
of  the  soul,"  and  there  endeavours  to  experience  the 
power  of  God  for  his  patient.  The  only  volition 
involved  is  to  induce  the  passive  state.  In  the  in- 
numerable veridical  cases  of  apparitions  at  the  time  of 
death  there  appears  little  evidence  of  volition  on  the 
part  of  the  dying  ;  the  transference  of  thought,  which 
no  doubt  originated  the  apparition,  seems  more  likely 
to  have  taken  place  when  the  dying  person  is  sinking, 
and  hence  passive. 

The  Buddhists  reckon  that  there  are  four  distinct 
phases  of  rapt  meditation.  In  the  first,  attention  is 
**  directed  and  sustained."  The  second  is  the  "  inward 
tranquillising  of  the  mind,  self-contained  and  uplifted 
from  the  working  of  attention  "  ;  this  state  is  "  born  of 
concentration."  In  the  third,  "  through  the  quenching 
of  zest "  man  "  abides  indiflferent  but  also  mindful  "  ; 


326  IMMORTALITY  viii 

of  this  state  it  is  declared,  "  he  who  is  indifferent  but 
mindful  dwells  in  happiness."  The  final  state  is  "  pure 
mindfulness  and  indifference,  wherein  is  neither  happiness 
nor  unhappiness."  ^ 

In  our  own  language,  and  from  what  appears  to  be 
the  evidence  concerning  states  of  quiescence,  we  may 
say  that  the  first  state  is  that  of  intent  and  pleasant 
thought  upon  some  special  subject.  Secondly,  from  the 
strain  of  attention,  especially  if  any  outward  object  of 
adoration  or  contemplation  is  seen  or  imagined,  the 
mind  becomes  slightly  exhausted,  and  slips  into  what 
may  be  called  inward  silence  or  a  cessation  of  all  the 
inward  voices  of  mind  and  heart.  This  state  can  be 
achieved  by  some  practice  without  the  previous  state 
of  meditation.  It  is  extraordinarily  useful  as  a  rest  to 
the  harassed  mind,  and  after  such  a  rest  the  mind  may 
often  reap  the  harvest  of  its  best  previous  labour.  The 
subject  soon  becomes  incapable  of  criticising  any  sugges- 
tion that  may  come,  unless  it  be  too  deeply  antago- 
nistic to  be  acceptable.  This  is  a  stage  in  which  the 
crystal-gazer  sees  visions  in  the  crystal,  in  which  the 
devotee  may  see  unwonted  sights  or  hear  voices  or 
experience  revelations.  It  is  also  the  stage  which  is 
the  parent  of  hallucination  and  delusion,  because  the 
mind  apparently  always  believes  itself  to  be  completely 
alert,  not  recognising  its  hypnoidal  state.  In  any 
normal  condition  the  rest  is  very  short.  If  by  practice 
this  period  can  be  unduly  prolonged,  or  if  the  strain 
of  the  mind's  vision  is  fixed  upon  any  object  too  long, 
a  third  state  ensues  which  is  hypnotic  sleep  or  trance. 

We  require  a  far  more  thorough  scientific  study 
than  we  now  have  of  these  natural  powers  of  the  mind 
in  quiescent  conditions,  in  order  that  we  may  unravel 
the  good  and  evil  strains  in  trance-practice.  It  is  prob- 
able that  knowledge  of  actual  facts  arising  from  the 
natural  powers  of  the  mind  in  hypnotic  conditions,  and, 
appearing  supernatural,   as  it  must  to  those  who  do 

^  Buddhism,  by  Mrs.  Rhys  Davids,  p.  200. 


VIII  MODERN  THEOSOPHY  327 

not  know  its  real  cause,  casts  a  glamour  over  the 
memory  of  mere  hypnotic  dreams,  making  them  seem 
veridical,  and  throws  a  false  sanctity  over  objects  and 
beliefs  connected  with  all  the  milder  forms  of  self- 
hypnosis. 

The  key  to  the  problem  of  discriminating  the  valu- 
able and  the  worthless  elements  in  all  such  "  revelations  " 
is  to  be  found  in  two  facts  already  noted  in  Essay 
VII.  Firstly,  that  the  general  tenor  of  the  content 
of  the  mind  in  any  self-induced  hypnoidal  state  is 
determined  by  the  real,  though  not  always  conscious, 
tenor  of  the  desire  and  purpose  of  the  self.  Secondly, 
that  the  telepathic  influences  from  other  minds  to  which 
it  is  most  susceptible  are  thoughts  or  pictures  in 
harmony  with  that  real  desire  and  purpose.  Hence 
the  value  of  the  thoughts  or  visions  which  rise  in  the 
mind  in  such  states  depends  entirely  upon  the  mental, 
moral,  and  aesthetic  Interests  of  the  subject.  They 
must  be  tested  by  their  quality,  not  accepted  uncriticised 
as  a  revelation  from  the  unseen  world.  The  content 
of  such  hypnoidal  states  as  come  short  of  trance  is 
remembered  by  the  subject  ;  hence  in  spite  of  the 
compelling  force  which  attaches  to  suggestions  made 
in  these  hypnoidal  states  (cf.  p.  36)  the  responsibility  of 
their  interpretation  lies  with  the  reason  of  the  subject. 
The  interpretation  of  what  is  said  and  done  in  deeper 
trance  lies  with  the  reason  of  the  observers. 

The  problem  of  interpretation  has  been  entirely 
confused  by  the  absurd  idea  that  if  the  state  is  due 
to  auto-suggestion,  its  content  must  be  also.  The 
hypnoidal  state  is  always  due  either  to  auto-suggestion, 
or  to  hetero-suggestion  which  is  not  repelled,  or  to 
some  degree  of  physical  exhaustion.  When  the  subject 
of  the  hypnoidal  state  is  of  weak  or  vagrant  mind  the 
content  of  the  self-induced  state  will  be  due  to  any 
chance  suggestion,  verbal  or  telepathic.  When  the  state 
is  entered  into  with  a  distinct  desire  for  a  certain  type 
of  content,  the  content  will  again  be  due  to  suggestion. 


328         .  IMMORTALITY  viii 

and  will  have  only  the  value  of  that  suggestion.  At 
the  same  time,  in  this  state,  the  poet,  the  painter, 
the  musician,  the  discoverer,  the  thinker,  the  saint, 
may  sometimes  attain  the  vision  which  is  the  crown  of 
their  laborious  lives,  and  that  vision  is  a  vision  of 
objective  reality  because  truth  and  beauty  and  God 
have  objective  realities,  and  the  quest  for  these  realities 
has  been  the  ruling  passion  of  their  ordinary  life. 

We  are  thus  forced  to  believe  that  all  these  hypnoidal 
mental  states — whether  of  Apocalyptic  Seers,  Christian 
Mystics,  Theosophical  Adepts,  or  Spiritualist  Mediums 
— however  induced,  are  in  themselves  negative,  and  that 
their  content  may  be  expected  to  reveal  objective 
reality  only  so  far  as  the  life  of  the  subject  exhibits  an 
endeavour  after  such  reality.  Their  content  must  at 
all  times  be  rationally  criticised. 

We  have  three  ways  of  approaching  truth — know- 
ledge of  fact,  current  and  historic,  the  experience  of 
the  self  or  of  others  ;  hard  thinking  ;  and  the  intuitive 
vision  of  quiescent  moments.  Truth  arrived  at  by 
such  insight  must  not  contradict  knowledge  attained  in 
these  other  ways. 

Prayer  and  Ecstasy  in  Christian  Devotion 

In  petitional  or  intercessory  prayer,  the  reason  is 
active,  the  attention  alert  to  the  train  of  thought.  But 
Christian  practice  sanctions  certain  devotional  methods 
under  the  names  of  meditation,  concentration,  adoration, 
and  contemplation,  which  are  usually  varying  degrees 
of  trance-practice — wholesome  if  held  in  check  by 
reason,  unwholesome  if  unduly  indulged. 

Every  Catholic  priest  knows  that  after  people  have 
knelt  in  adoration  for  some  time  before  some  object 
which  fixes  the  gaze,  the  vows  or  resolutions  they  then 
make  are  likely  to  be  operative  ;  but  he  does  not  know 
why.  Evangelists  produce  the  same  effect  by  the 
singing  of  hymns  whose  words  and  music  are  such  that 


VIII  MODERN  THEOSOPHY  329 

they  silence  the  reason  rather  than  stimulate  thought  ; 
but  they  do  not  understand  their  own  procedure.  Part 
of  the  psychological  explanation  is  simple  :  give  a  sug- 
gestion to  a  busy  mind,  and  it  is  neglected,  as  a  candle 
in  a  light  room  is  unnoticed  ;  but  suggestion  in  a 
quiescent  mind  makes  a  vivid  impression,  like  a  search- 
light suddenly  penetrating  the  subdued  landscape  of 
night  ;  or,  if  we  want  another  illustration,  the  best 
food  introduced  into  a  full  stomach  only  produces 
indigestion,  while  when  the  stomach  is  prepared  by 
rest,  the  same  food  is  received  with  appetite,  easily 
digested,  and  produces  strength. 

A  beautiful  English  girl  once  told  me  of  a  method  of 
meditation  which  she  had  been  taught — by  her  vicar,  if 
I  remember  rightly.  She  said,  "  You  take  the  name  of 
the  subject  you  wish  to  understand — love,  or  humility, 
or  anything  else — you  make  yourself  see  just  the  word 
with  your  eyes  shut.  By  and  bye  you  can  see  each 
letter  outlined  in  fire  ;  then  you  get  through."  There 
was  a  note  of  happy  triumph  in  the  word  *'  through." 
"  Through  where  ?  Through  to  what  .'' "  I  asked. 
*' Through  to  reality,"  she  said  reverently — "after  that 
it  is  quite  different." 

In  the  light  of  such  experience  we  must  ask.  What 
is  the  value  of  trance  -  practice  to  devotion  ?  It  is 
important  to  realise  that  the  law  of  mental  rhythm  is 
a  law  of  God,  one  of  those  natural  laws  the  breaking  of 
which  produces  confusion.  The  inward  silence  of  the 
mind  is  as  necessary  before  coming  to  the  conclusion  of 
any  train  of  thought,  as  rest  before  any  important 
effort.  The  natural  summing  up  of  the  mind's  insight 
which  seems  to  come  almost  automatically  after  such 
inward  silence,  will  combine  the  fruit  of  the  more  im- 
mediate work  and  the  tenor  of  the  whole  mental  life. 
The  Divine  Spirit,  who  is  always,  everywhere,  seeking 
to  enhance  man's  powers  and  attract  him  toward  truth, 
undoubtedly  sustains  the  mind  in  its  rest  and  conse- 
quent strength.      At  such  an   hour  God   is  not   nearer 


330  IMMORTALITY  viii 

than  at  any  other,  nor  the  voice  of  truth  more  personally 
directed  to  the  soul ;  but  man  by  conformity  to  nature's 
rhythm  is  better  able  to  exercise  his  innate  power  of 
appreciating  truth.  Because  this  is  true  whatever  the 
subject  of  thought,  it  is  true  also  in  devotional  thought. 
Because  it  is  true  of  all  intuitions,  it  is  certainly  true  of 
religious  intuitions.  In  all  cases  the  value  of  the  experi- 
ence is  the  value  of  the  aspirations  or  desires  or  efforts 
of  the  mind  that  has  the  experience.  This  would  still 
be  true  although,  as  appears  to  be  the  case,  the  soul  at 
such  times  is  liable  to  be  reinforced  by  telepathic  influ- 
ence. What  the  mind  receives  by  telepathy  from  other 
minds  will  be  only  such  moods  or  wordless  thoughts 
as  are  of  the  texture  of  its  own  habits  of  thought. 

Again,  we  have  seen  that  the  content  of  the  mind 
in  any  self-induced,  hypnoidal  states,  and  the  influence 
from  without  to  which  it  is  susceptible,  are  largely 
determined  by  the  purpose  which  was  dominant  in 
inducing  the  state.  If  the  purpose  of  prayer  is  com- 
munion with  a  Being  who  is  all  goodness  and  all  love, 
this  cannot  but  exercise  a  favourable  influence  on  the 
content  of  the  mind.  On  the  other  hand,  prayer  to  a 
God  conceived  of  as  petty  or  vindictive  is  liable  to  have 
the  worst  results — a  reflection  which  shows  that  idolatry 
is  indeed  the  worst  of  sins,  for  idolatry  does  not  consist 
in  making  images  of  wood  or  stone,  but  in  holding 
the  unworthy  conceptions  of  God  which  are  usually 
embodied  in  such  images. 

But  while  the  godly  soul  is  thus  not  in  danger  from 
hypnoidal  states  as  such,  danger  certainly  arises  from 
misinterpretation.  Because  a  laborious  and  noble  mind 
discovers  truth  in  the  inner  silence,  mere  emptiness  of 
mind  is  often  held  to  be  a  door  to  God's  secret  place  : 
objects  used  to  concentrate  gaze  and  thought  come  to 
be  regarded  as  possessing  in  themselves  divine  power  ; 
visions  seen  in  crystals,  in  convent  cells,  or  in  dim 
chancels,  are  thought  objective,  and  dream  voices  that 
arise  in  the  soul  are  taken  for  revelations  from  another 


VIII  MODERN  THEOSOPHY  331 

world.  The  subject  is  too  large  to  be  more  than 
touched  on  here. 

While  prayer  is  essential  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus, 
trance-ecstasy  is  not,  in  His  teaching,  either  the  test  of 
true  prayer  or  its  culmination.  Experiences  of  the 
deepest  trance  are  very  rare  in  the  lives  of  men  who 
have  brought  great  enlightenment  to  the  world  in  any 
direction.  When  they  occur  unsought  in  the  lives  of 
men  whose  aspirations  are  set  upon  truth  and  righteous- 
ness and  who,  like  St.  Paul,  are  habitually  using  all  their 
faculties  in  the  service  of  these,  mistakes  concerning 
their  nature  can  do  no  harm.  They  may  well  bring 
into  consciousness  conclusions  that  are  a  true  revelation, 
because  they  have  been  ripening  in  a  sober  and  active 
mind,  inspired  in  all  its  operations  by  the  spirit  of 
truth. 

But — and  this  is  the  point  with  which  this  paper  is 
concerned — the  spectacular  or  verbal  content  of  the 
state  arises  from  the  subject's  own  mentality,  and  the 
visions  seen  or  words  heard  cannot  be  accepted  as  a 
source  of  accurate  information  about  the  unseen  world. ^ 


Barrenness  of  Trance-Experience 

The  unprofitableness  of  the  pursuit  ot  such  experi- 
ences is  confirmed  by  the  fact  that  in  communities  where 
trance  is  most  prized  and  encouraged  there  has  been 
for  centuries  least  contribution  to  the  world's  thought 
and  least  improvement  in  its  manners  and  customs. 

Several  modern  Hindu  writers,  who  have  no  leanings 

'  In  regard  to  the  memory  of  trance-dreams  inHuceH  by  suggestion,  and  to  the 
persistent  vision  of  auras  claimed  by  many  Theosophists,  I  would  quote  the  testimony 
of  a  scientific  hypnotist  of  experience  :  "It  is  perfectly  possible,  and  is  indeed  quite 
customary,  for  one  in  a  hypnotic  trance  to  remember  afterwarcis  all  that  happened 
in  the  trance.  As  for  the  colour  aura,  to  find  out  how  it  may  be  visualiseil,  I 
hypnotised  a  patient  and  told  him  that  after  he  wakened  he  would  think  my  uniform 
was  green.  After  he  got  up  I  asked  him,  'What  is  the  colour  of  my  uniform?' 
He  said,  'Green.'"  In  this  case  the  patient  after  an  interval,  having  the  real 
uniform  before  his  eyes,  was  able  to  give  the  correct  colour.  But  the  self-hypnotised 
Theosophist  has  no  such  real  object  by  which  to  correct  the  suggestion  if  ever  a 
colour  aura  becomes  associated  in  his  mind  with  a  particular  person. 


332  IMMORTALITY  viii 

towards  Western  religion,  are  waking  up  to  the  fact 
that  the  assiduous  trance-practices  of  the  Hindu  are 
inimical  to  the  acquirement  of  truth.  Thus  Professor 
Har  Dayal  (in  the  Modern  Review^  July  1912)  ^  says  : — 

'*  India  has  hundreds  of  really  sincere  and  aspiring 
young  men  and  women,  who  are  free  from  all  taint  of 
greed  or  worldliness,  but  they  are  altogether  useless  for 
any  purpose  that  one  may  appreciate.  .  ,  .  '  Samadhi ' 
or  trance  is  regarded  as  the  acme  of  spiritual  progress  ! 
.  .  .  To  look  upon  an  abnormal  psychological  condition 
produced  by  artificial  means  as  the  sign  of  enlighten- 
ment was  a  folly  reserved  for  Indian  philosophers." 

The  experience  called  by  Mrs.  Besant,  "  going  out 
into  the  astral  plane  to  acquire  knowledge,"  is  well 
described  by  Dr.  Jacks  in  the  words  of  a  character  drawn 
true  to  life  as  we  know  it  : — 

"  Well,  I've  often  done  it,  and  many's  the  story  I 
could  tell  of  things  I've  seen  by  day  and  night ;  but  it 
wasn't  till  I  went  to  hear  Sir  Robert  Ball  as  the  grand 
idea  came  to  me.  '  Why  not  throw  yerself  into  the 
stars.  Bob }  '  I  sez  to  myself.  And,  by  gum,  sir,  I  did 
it  that  very  night.  How  I  did  it  I  don't  know  ;  I 
won't  say  as  there  weren't  a  drop  of  drink  in  it ;  but 
the  minute  I'd  got  through^  I  felt  as  I'd  stretched  out 
wonderful,  and  blessed  if  I  didn't  find  myself  standin' 
wi'  millions  of  other  spirits,  right  in  the  middle  o' 
Saturn's  rings.  And  the  things  I  see  there  I  couldn't 
tell  you,  no,  not  if  you  was  to  give  me  a  thousand 
pounds.  Talk  o'  spirits  !  I  tell  you  there  was  millions 
on  'em  !  And  the  lights  and  the  colours — oh,  but  it's 
no  good  talkin'  !  I  looked  back  and  wanted  to  know 
where  the  earth  was,  and  there  I  see  it,  dwindled  to  a 
speck  o'  light."  ^ 

Here  we  discern  three  elements  in  the  experience 
— the  practice  of  some  form  of  self- hypnotism  by  a 
man  who  did  not  accurately  know  how  he  did  it ;  the 

'   Quoted  by  Dr.  Faiquhar  in  The  Crown  of  Hinduism,  p.  37. 
■■^  Writings  by  L.  P.  Jacks,  vol.  i.  Mad  Shepherds,  pp.  .32-33. 


VIII  MODERN  THEOSOPHY  333 

suggestion  derived  from  an  absorbing  lecture  by  Sir  R. 
Ball ;  and  the  memory  of  a  dream  that  appears  veridical 
but  added  nothing  to  the  store  of  the  world's  knowledge. 
Thus,  Theosophy  comes  to  us  as  a  rampant  oc- 
cultism, setting  the  seal  of  occult  "  knowledge  "  upon 
its  teaching  of  the  after-life.  In  its  "  illumination  "  I 
can  find  no  idea  that  has  not  long  been  current.  The 
very  phrases  and  notions  seem  to  come  straight  from 
Oriental  or  neo-Platonic  literature,  or  from  modern,  but 
not  the  latest,  philosophy  and  science.  It  is  the  pro- 
fession of  its  teachers  that  all  the  truth  they  teach  has 
always  been  in  the  possession  of  the  world-sages  ;  they 
therefore  admit  that  it  makes  no  original  contribution. 

(2)  Doctrine  of  the  Common  Origin  of  all 
Religions 

We  are  now  in  a  position  to  criticise  the  occult  or 
trance-acquired  knowledge  of  the  Theosophists  as  to 
the  essentials  of  religion.  I  have  read  five  primers  or 
manuals  of  Theosophy.  They  all  insist  that  the  essen- 
tials of  all  religions  are  the  same,  since  they  have  been 
revealed  through  Adepts  or  Mahatmas,  appearing  from 
time  to  time  as  Prophets  or  Founders  of  the  Historic 
Religions,  but  all  teaching  the  one  Universal  Religion. 
But  a  very  little  real  knowledge  of  actual  religious 
systems,  e.g.  of  Old  Testament  Jahvehism  and  Buddhism, 
shows  that  it  is  just  in  essentials  that  they  differ  most — 
in  their  conceptions  of  God,  and  in  their  beliefs  con- 
cerning the  origin  and  goal  of  man  and  concerning  the 
nature  of  goodness.  The  idea  of  an  original  Universal 
Religion,  the  parent  of  all  existing  religions,  was  once 
plausible,  but  it  has  been  completely  exploded  by  the 
scientific  study  of  Comparative  Religion. 

"The  bodyof  doctrine,"  says  Mrs.Besant,"is  obtained 
by  separating  the  beliefs  common  to  all  religions  from 
the  peculiarities,  specialities,  rites,  ceremonies,  and 
customs   which   mark   off  one   religion  from  another  ; 


334  IMMORTALITY  viii 

it  presents  these  common  truths  as  a  consensus  of 
world-beliefs,  forming,  in  their  entirety,  the  Wisdom 
Religion,  or  the  Universal  Religion,  the  source  from 
which  all  separate  religions  spring,  the  trunk  of  the 
Tree  of  Life  from  which  they  all  branch  forth.  .  .  . 
The  community  of  religious  teachings,  ethics,  stories, 
symbols,  ceremonies,  and  even  the  traces  of  these 
among  savages,  arose  from  the  derivation  of  all 
religions  from  a  common  centre,  from  a  Brotherhood  of 
Divine  Men,  which  sent  out  one  of  its  members  into 
the  world  from  time  to  time  to  found  a  new  religion, 
containing  the  same  essential  verities  as  its  predecessors, 
but  varying  in  form  with  the  needs  of  the  time,  and 
with  the  capacities  of  the  people  to  whom  the  Messenger 
was  sent.  .  .  .  Comparative  Mythology  cannot  bring 
one  single  proof  from  history  of  a  religion  that  has 
evolved  from  savagery  into  spirituality  and  philosophy  ; 
its  hypothesis  is  disproved  by  history.  The  Theo- 
sophical  view  is  now  so  widely  accepted  that  people  do 
not  realise  how  triumphant  was  the  opposing  theory, 
when  Theosophy  again  rode  into  the  arena  of  the 
world's  thought  in  1875,  mounted  on  its  new  steed, 
the  Theosophical  Society."  ^ 

We  cannot  accept  this  view.  The  following  passage 
by  Mr.  C.  C.  J.  Webb  will  suffice  to  explain  both  its 
origin  and  why  it  must  be  regarded  as  obsolete  : — 

"  When  the  distinction  between  Natural  and  Re- 
vealed Religion  was  most  in  vogue,  some  would  frankly 
regard  Natural  Religion  as  that  religion  the  truth  of 
whose  tenets  was  sure  and  certain,  as  the  general 
agreement  upon  them  indicated.  .  .  .  The  difficulty 
which  thus  confronted  those  who  maintained  the 
value  of  the  special  doctrines  of  their  own  religion 
could  not  be  adequately  met  with  the  help  of  an 
abstract  Logic  untouched  by  the  theory  of  develop- 
ment, which  took  little  account  in  dealing  with  other 
peoples   and    other    ages  of  the   different   intellectual 

^   Theosophy,  pp.  12,  14-16. 


VIII  MODERN  THEOSOPHY  335 

contexts  in  which  their  statements  were  made,  and 
scarcely  conceived  of  any  relation  between  the  different 
doctrines  which  obtained  in  different  periods  or  among 
different  nations,  except  the  relations  of  agreement  or 
disagreement.  With  such  a  logic  it  was  only  possible,  if 
one  held  to  the  truth  of  the  doctrines  of  one's  own 
religion,  either  to  suppose  all  other  doctrines  simply 
false,  a  view  difficult  for  men  of  culture  who  were 
aware  how  much  they  themselves  and  their  religion 
owed  to  the  believers  and  teachers  of  other  religions  ; 
or  to  suppose  that  one  and  the  same  esoteric  doctrine 
(whether  traceable  or  no  to  one  primeval  '  revelation  ') 
had  been  taught  unchanged  in  divers  religions  under 
different  phraseology.  This  last  view  does  not  now 
recommend  itself  to  scholars  or  scientific  theologians, 
but  it  has  still  great  attractions  for  many  who  have 
enjoyed  only  a  general  and  unsystematic  education,  as 
the  success  of  the  Theosophical  Society  and  of  kindred 
movements  sufficiently  proves  ;  and  in  a  former  age 
it  was  entertained  by  men  who  stood  in  the  first  rank, 
of  the  learning  and  science  of  their  day.  Without 
going  back  to  the  attempts  of  ancient  thinkers  like 
Philo  to  find  Platonism  in  the  Old  Testament,  and 
the  like  efforts  of  later  theologians  and  philosophers, 
a  notion  of  this  sort  is  the  leading  principle  in  a  work 
of  vast  learning  and  deep  thought,  the  production  of 
which  conferred  honour  on  Cambridge  and  England 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  Cudworth's  Intellectual 
System  of  the  Universe  ;  and  we  may  find  a  lingering 
echo  of  this  way  of  thinking  in  the  late  Mr.  Gladstone's 
discussion  of  Homeric  religion  in  his  Juventus  Mundi. 
.  .  .  To  advance  further,  it  was  necessary  to  introduce 
the  conception  of  development.  .  .  .  We  have  also 
come  to  think  it  less  profitable  to  study  under  the 
name  of  '  natural  religion  '  a  religion  reached  by 
abstracting  from  each  religion  what  is  peculiar  to  it 
and  retaining  only  what  is  common,  a  religion  therefore 
which  never  really  exists  as  the  religion  ot  any  nation 


336  IMMORTALITY  viii 

or  people.  We  think  it  better  to  try  to  understand 
a  real  actual  religion,  one  which  has  grown  up  with 
the  natural  development  of  a  people's  mind,  to  seek 
to  discover  why  it  has  just  the  peculiarities  which  it  has, 
why  in  these  particular  respects  it  has  departed  from 
some  older  religious  system  which  may  have  preceded 
it,  or  has  opposed  itself  to  the  religious  systems  which 
confront  it  in  the  same  or  neighbouring  lands."  ^ 

If  what  Mrs.  Besant  puts  forth  as  the  central  tenet 
of  Theosophy,  endorsed  by  her  occult  investigations, 
has  no  basis  in  the  facts  as  now  more  clearly  elucidated 
by  the  comparative  study  of  religions,  the  authority  of 
the  Theosophical  Society  as  an  exponent  of  occult  truth 
concerning  the  future  life  must  be  shaken. 

(3)  The  Conception  of  Personality 

The  third  point  in  which  Theosophist  teaching  seems 
to  fail  is  with  regard  to  the  conception  of  personality. 

There  is  in  the  teaching  of  the  greater  prophets  and 
psalmists  of  the  Old  Testament,  in  the  teaching  and 
example  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  in  much  of  the  religious 
experience  recorded  in  the  New  Testament,  a  concep- 
tion of  the  relation  of  God  and  man  that  commands 
our  acceptance  by  its  moral  beauty,  and  that,  by  its 
splendour  and  tenderness,  causes  the  beliefs  in  Reincar- 
nation and  Karma  to  appear  tawdry  and  trivial.  The 
main  objection  to  these  doctrines  is  that  they  belittle 
personality,  and  that .  in  three  ways:  (i)  The  view 
of  a  thread  of  psychic  life  on  which  different  earthly 
lives  could  be  strung,  like  beads  on  a  string,  is  an 
abstraction  of  thought  :  the  minimum  or  life  principle 
common  to  a  hundred  or  a  thousand  lives  does  not  con- 
stitute personality.  (2)  A  continuous  memory  is  not 
held  to  be  necessary  to  life  progress  ;  but  we  are  to  our- 
selves and  to  our  friends  only  what  memory  makes  us. 
(3)  Under  the  law  of  Karma  men  are  supposed  to  be 

1    The  Notion  of  Revelation,  C.  C.  J.  Webb,  pp.  6-8. 


VIII  MODERN  THEOSOPHY  337 

punished  cruelly  for  wrongs  they  do  not  know  they 
have  committed  ;  this  would  be  seen  to  be  an  outrage 
upon  dignity  and  freedom  if  God,  or  fate,  was  conceived 
as  respecting  man's  personality.  When  personality  is 
accepted  as  the  standard  of  value,  and  exalted  as  an 
attribute  of  God,  the  belief  that  the  human  soul  in  its 
aeonian  pilgrimage  casts  off  a  hundred  different  per- 
sonalities, each  like  a  soiled  garment,  becomes  profane. 

The  nature  of  personality  has  always  been  a  difficulty 
to  the  philosopher.  It  will  not  lend  itself  to  abstraction. 
The  moment  it  is  conceived  of  as  cut  up  into  will  and 
emotion  and  intellect,  into  soul,  mind,  and  spirit,  or  into 
any  other  division,  that  moment  it  ceases  to  exist  for 
the  mind  who  thus  conceives  it.  The  conception 
becomes  at  once  a  misconception,  useful  for  certain 
purposes  of  dialectic,  but  representing  nothing  real. 
The  trend  of  modern  philosophy  is,  in  spite  of  all  diffi- 
culties, to  emphasise  personality  as  central  to  the  thought 
of  reality.  But  personality  only  exists  for  man  qua 
father  or  son  or  brother  or  friend  ;  the  philosopher, 
unless  he  hold  fast  to  his  experience  of  friendship  as 
a  basis  for  his  search  for  reality,  will  not  succeed  in 
retaining  personality  for  man. 

In  Hindu  religion,  where  the  more  primitive  and  now 
obsolescent  philosophic  conceptions  of  the  Brahmans 
became  dominant,  friendship  is  belittled  by  asceticism, 
personality  becomes  a  thing  of  nought  ;  or  perhaps 
because  personality  is  belittled  by  ascetical  thought, 
friendship  is  not  valued.  Disgust  for  life  is  esteemed 
holiness.  This  is  a  natural  result,  for  human  love — 
motherly,  brotherly,  and  friendly — is  the  only  salt 
which  keeps  life  wholesome  and  ever  fragrant. 

There  are  many  things  at  which  a  philosophy  must 
necessarily  stumble  if  it  proceeds  by  processes  of 
analysis  and  abstraction — the  freedom  of  the  human 
will  ;  the  knowledge  of  God  ;  problems  of  the  one  and 
the  many,  the  finite  and  the  infinite.  There  are  things 
that  the  human  mind  knows  in  their  entirety  and  knows 

z 


338  IMMORTALITY  viii 

directly — that  Is,  as  soon  as  it  becomes  aware  of  them 
it  knows  that  they  are  real.  Personality  is  reality  for 
the  soul.  Love  is  seen  to  inhere  in  persons  and  to  be 
possible  only  because  of  individuals.  God  is  known  to 
be  real  through  His  personality  ;  and  other  problems, 
insoluble  through  any  other  conception  of  reality,  are 
through  this  one  made  more  easy.  The  soul  that 
admits  its  knowledge  of  the  distinction  between  persons, 
knows  also  that  the  unity  of  homogeneity,  even  if 
infinite,  is  something  far  lower  than  the  possible 
harmony  of  differentiation.  The  soul,  even  in  child- 
hood, knows  these  things.  To  the  Hindu  sage,  to  the 
Greek  philosopher,  the  Hebrew  prophets  were  like  un- 
reflecting children  ;  but  to  us,  on  the  contrary,  it  is 
clear  that  their  thought,  being  based  on  an  intuitive 
perception  of  personality  as  the  fundamental  quality 
of  ultimate  reality,  really  went  further  and  deeper. 

It  is  curious  to  note  how  little  time  and  place  alter 
this  vision  of  the  soul  that  has  its  first  true  religious 
experience,  and  brings  forth  its  criterion  of  personality 
as  the  test  of  reality.  In  this  matter  deep  answers  to 
deep  across  some  twenty-five  or  twenty-seven  centuries, 
and  we  see  moderns  like  Mr.  Wells  making,  by  a 
personal  experience  of  religion,  the  same  discoveries  as 
were  made  by  the  Hebrew  prophets.  The  more  we 
study  the  purer  strain  of  Hebrew  religion  the  more  we 
realise  how  close  it  is  to  the  purer  strain  in,  e.g.^  Mr. 
Wells's  conception  of  religion.  In  both  we  have  the 
insistence  upon  God  as  a  veritable  person  ;  both  look  to 
personality  at  its  highest  for  the  character  of  God. 
Thus,  the  prophets  assert  that  God  loathes  blood-reeking 
altars,  and  loves  kindness  and  truth  ;  and  Mr.  Wells 
cries,  "  God  fights  against  death  in  every  form  .  .  . 
against  the  petty  death  of  indolence,  insufficiency, 
baseness,  misconception,  and  perversion,"  ^  Both  insist 
that  our  knowledge  of  God  comes  from  direct  personal 
friendship  with  Him.     "  The  Lord  is  my  shepherd  .  .  . 

1  God  the  Invisible  King,  p.  1 18. 


VIII  MODERN  THEOSOPHY  339 

He  leads  me  .  .  .  He  restores  my  soul."  ^  "  1  sought 
the  Lord  and  he  heard  me."  ^  "  God  comes.  ...  It 
is  like  standing  side  by  side  with  and  touching  some  one 
that  we  love  very  dearly  and  trust  completely."  ^  Both, 
having  direct  knowledge  of  God,  are  comparatively 
indifferent  to  any  complete  philosophy  of  the  universe 
or  any  definite  conception  of  the  after-life.  I  am  not 
setting  Mr.  Wells  and  the  makers  of  all  that  was  best 
in  the  Hebrew  religion  on  a  level  ;  I  am  simply  showing 
that  where  there  is  the  true  religious  experience,  even 
in  those  who  are  agnostic  concerning  the  after-life  and 
the  Divine  omnipotence,  there  is  the  uplifting  of  human 
personality  into  the  heavens,  and  the  certainty  that  it 
is  men  as  persons  that  God  personally  loves.  If  the 
abiding  part  of  man  is,  as  the  doctrine  of  Reincarnation 
affirms,  not  man  at  all  but  a  mere  principle  of  life  that 
may  manifest  itself  on  earth  as  first  a  mouse  and  then  a 
lion,  a  cannibal,  a  squaw,  a  warrior,  a  philosopher,  a 
Christian  monk,  a  Buddhist  ascetic,  his  God  will  also  be 
a  mere  principle  of  life,  something  we  cannot  now  know 
and  love.  The  test  of  reality  and  the  whole  standard 
of  value  changes  and  becomes  "as  moonlight  unto  sun- 
light, as  water  unto  wine  "  ;  instead  of  confidence  we 
get  fear,  asceticism  instead  of  fulness  of  life,  benevolence 
in  place  of  friendship. 

Again,  how  mean  and  dreary  to  us  appears  the 
individualistic  belief  that  each  soul  must  suffer  only  for 
its  own  sins,  never  for  those  of  others,  expiating  all  its 
own  sins  to  the  uttermost  through  innumerable  suffering 
lives  without  God's  interposition.  To  find  a  faith  with 
nobler  appeal  we  need  not  turn  to  the  tender  experience 
and  reasoning  of  Jesus  Christ  ;  wc  find  in  Hebrew 
literature,  from  the  eighth  century  b.c.  onward,  a  faith 
concerning  God's  interposition  on  man's  behalf  which 
convinces  us  of  its  truth  because  we  all  know  that  we 
are  most  nearly  divine  when  we  can   bear  the  burdens 

'   Psa.  xxiii,  "^  Psa.  xxxiv.  4. 

'   God  the  In-visible  fCing,  p.  27. 


340  IMMORTALITY  viii 

which  others  have  incurred,  and  relieve  them  of  their 
sin's  ill  consequence,  while  we  help  to  restore  their 
moral  insight  and  strength. 

The  following  passage  is  from  an  unpublished 
lecture  by  Professor  Kennett  : — 

"  This  brings  me  to  that  characteristic  of  the  Old 
Testament  for  which  it  will  be  valued  so  long  as  men 
are  seeking  after  God.  In  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  we 
have  the  language  of  perfect  faith  ...  a  certainty  that 
there  is  no  wrong  which  God  will  not  redress,  no  social 
or  political  sore  too  inveterate  for  His  healing  touch, 
no  sorrow  which  He  cannot  comfort.  To  quote  in 
length  is  impossible,  for  the  Psalms  and  prophetic  books 
must  needs  be  quoted  almost  in  extenso.  It  is  enough 
to  suggest  such  utterances  as  these  :  '  God  is  our 
refuge  and  strength,  a  very  present  help  in  trouble  ; 
therefore  will  not  we  fear.'  ^  And  this  :  '  He  hath 
swallowed  up  death  for  ever,  and  the  Lord  God  will 
^wipe  away  tears  from  off  all  faces,  and  the  reproach  of 
His  people  shall  He  take  away  from  off  all  the  earth.'  "  ^ 

Again,  we  get  the  faith  reiterated — as  over  against 
the  conception  of  human  expiation  and  expiatory 
sacrifice — that  it  is  at  cost  to  Himself  that  God  saves. 
*'  In  all  their  affliction  he  was  afflicted,  and  the  angel 
of  his  presence  saved  them."  ^  "I  have  blotted  out,  as 
a  thick  cloud,  thy  transgressions,  and,  as  a  cloud,  thy 
sins  ;  return  unto  me,  for  I  have  redeemed  thee."  * 

Just  as  in  the  Old  Testament  religion  we  see  a 
constant  struggle  going  on  between  the  sacrificial  cults 
whose  morality  tended  always  to  inhibitions  and  ritual 
exactions,  and  the  prophetic  conception  which  made 
friendship  with  God  the  criterion  both  of  religion  and 
ethics,  so  in  Christianity  we  see  the  same  struggle  going 
forward  ;  but  in  Christianity  a  third  combatant  has  been 
added,  who  takes  sides  with  the  sacrificial  cults,  i.e., 
the  Oriental  monastic  disciplines  which  had  come  into 

'   Psa.  xlvi.  "  Isa,  xxv.  8. 

^  Isa.  Ixiii.  9.  *  Isa.  xliv.  22. 


VIII  MODERN  THEOSOPHY  341 

Europe  through  Egypt.  Although,  as  I  have  said, 
much  teaching  called  Christian  about  Retribution — in 
this  life  or  the  next — is  on  a  lower  level  than  the 
doctrine  of  Karma,  and  some  elements  in  our  "religious" 
disciplines  and  devotional  practice  are  merely  on  a  level 
with  Oriental  monasticism,  there  is,  in  what  is  essentially 
Christian,  a  religion  much  higher  than  anything  to  be 
found  in  Hindu  philosophy  or  in  Theosophic  teaching. 
The  keynote  of  Christianity  is  personality.  Com- 
panionship with  Jesus  teaches  us  that  the  open-eyed 
friendship  with  God  which  prophets  and  psalmists  sought, 
is  the  way  even  to  returning  sinners  and  to  little  children. 
Prayer  becomes  reasonable  and  confident  and  constant, 
because  the  child's  instinctive  knowledge  of  the  reality 
of  personal  contacts  is  seen  to  be  the  entrance  to,  or 
basis  of,  the  heavenly  wisdom,  the  true  philosophy. 
Notions  of  infinitude  and  omnipotence  are  seen  to  be 
mere  pale  reflections  of  truth  until  they  are  translated 
into  the  terms  of  personal  Love.  The  power  of  true 
majesty  is  seen  to  be  attraction,  not  compulsion,  and 
hence  the  only  remedy  for  sin  is  the  influx  of  the 
Divine  Spirit  of  love  into  the  soul.  In  the  sunburst 
of  Christian  friendship  with  God  and  man,  the  doctrines 
of  impersonal  spirit  and  of  the  expiation  of  sin  by  the 
suffering  of  the  sinner  are  shadows  that  flee  away. 


IX 
THE    UNDISCOVERED    COUNTRY 

BY    THE    AUTHOR    OF 

"PRO  CHRISTO  ET  ECCLESIA" 

(lily  dougall) 


343 


SYNOPSIS 


PAGE 

I.  The  Sting  of  Death  .....       345 

Christendom  has  not  overcome  the  dread  of  death.  It  is 
reflected  in  Mediaeval  miracle  and  mystery  plays. 

The  attitude  of  Shakespeare's  characters  to  death  indicates 
no  certain  hope. 

Post-Reformation  literature  tells  the  same  tale. 

II.  The  Revival  of  Interest  in  the  Future  Life  .  .       349 

This  fear  due  to  ignorance  of  what  lies  beyond  the  grave  ; 
and  the  ignorance  largely  due  to  lack  of  interest.  This 
lack  of  interest  shown  in  philosophy  and  poetry. 

The  present  desire  to  know  more  is  the  promise  of  its  own 
fulfilment. 

III.  The  Path  towards  Discovery        ....       352 

Certainty  concerning  the  after-life  can  be  found  if  we  seek 
it  by  : — 

A.  Prayer  ......       352 

The  common  discouragements  of  prayer  are  ex- 
plained by  our  inability  to  picture  the  end  from 
the  beginning,  and  to  know  what  we  want. 
God  always  gives  what  we  really  want  if  we 
only  knew  it. 

B.  A  living  theology    .....       356 

Distinction  between  traditionalism  and  theology. 
The  early  Christian  records  speak  of  the  Chris- 
tian life  as  a  constant  discovery  of  truth.  The 
doctrines  of  (a)  The  Resurrection  ;  (b)  The 
Invocation  of  Saints  5  (c)  The  Communion  of 
Saints. 

C.  Reinterpretation  of  experience  .  .  .       364 

By  a  more  careful  interpretation  of  our  inward 
experience  we  find  evidence  that  the  next  life 
interpenetrates  this.  Colloquy  illustrating  two 
ways  of  seeking  communion  with  our  dead. 

D.  Consideration  of  the  goal  of  existence  .  .       367 

Two  conceptions  of  this  goal  :  (i)  absorption  into 
God — a  state  without  individual  distinctions  or 
activities  ;  (2)  ever-increasing  friendship  with 
God — a  social  state  in  which  personal  distinc- 
tion attains  its  fullest  development. 

The  trend  of  biological  progress,  and  the 
fact  that  the  ideal  community  is  only  realised 
through  more  complete  individuality,  suggest 
that  the  second  is  the  truer  conception  of  the 
goal. 

344 


IX 

THE  UNDISCOVERED  COUNTRY 

I.  The  Sting  of  Death 

"  O  Death,  where  is  thy  sting !  "  St.  Paul  made 
this  exclamation  in  exaltation  of  spirit  when  writing  in 
passionate,  poetic  joy  of  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the 
Resurrection.  But  is  the  fear  of  the  grave  vanquished  ? 
Has  death  no  sting  ?  We  shut  it  out  of  our  minds, 
and  busy  ourselves  with  other  thoughts.  We  hypnotise 
ourselves  with  religious  or  philosophic  maxims  which  we 
mistake  for  insipid  truisms  until  we  find  ourselves  i^ice 
to  face  with  the  contrasting  realities  of  life  and  death  ; 
then  how  many  of  us  can  feel  St.  Paul's  thrill  of 
triumph  ? 

In  the  heart  of  Christendom,  a  thousand  years 
after  St.  Paul's  martyrdom,  we  come  upon  miracle  and 
mystery  plays  better  calculated  to  instil  the  terror  of 
death  than  the  peace  of  God.  Sometimes  they  rise  to 
the  level  of  real  poetry  which  comes  from  the  heart. 

Mors  cxecrabilis  ! 
Mors  detcstabilis  ! 
Mors  mihi  flcbilis  ! 
Fratris  interitus 
Gravis  et  subitus 
Est  causa  gcmitus. 

Thus  sings  Martha  at  the  death  of  Lazarus,  and  the 
chorus  of  consoling  Jews  answers  : — 

345 


346  IMMORTALITY  ix 

Non  per  tales  lacrimas 
Visum  fuit  animas 

Redisse  corporibus. 
Cessent  ergo  lacrimae 
Quae  defunctis  minime 

Proderunt  hominibus. 

But  there  is  nothing  in  the  latter  part  of  the  play 
that  comes  home  to  the  common  heart  as  this  does. 
Although  one  would  expect  the  Christian  triumph  to 
come  with  poetic  conviction,  there  is  no  later  verse  that 
rings  with  the  energy  and  poignancy  of  this  opening. 

When  the  truths  of  Christianity  had  for  several 
centuries  been  taught  to  the  people  by  such  plays,  by 
sermons  and  services  in  the  splendid  churches  that  were 
built  in  every  locality,  by  instruction  from  populous 
convents  and  monasteries  which  stood  in  almost  every 
fertile  vale,  how  stood  the  mind  of  the  common  people 
concerning  death  ?  If  death  for  them  had  lost  its  sting, 
confidence  in  the  life  after  death  would  by  Shakespeare's 
time  have  become  a  common  sentiment.  It  would  have 
been  taught  to  little  children  in  those  household  maxims 
which  become  the  warp  of  thought  of  which  after-experi- 
ence is  but  the  woof-thread.  Had  Christian  joy  in  the 
life  after  death  been  the  common  attitude,  Shakespeare 
must  have  put  it  into  the  mouth  of  many  dramatic 
characters.  But  this  triumph  of  faith  is  not  echoed 
from  play  to  play  as  some  other  serious  sentiments  of 
even  a  more  recondite  nature  are  echoed.  The  con- 
fidence that  a  good  conscience  gives  in  battle,  the 
superiority  of  mercy  to  retributive  justice,  are  thus 
echoed  ;  but  the  attitude  of  man  toward  death — what 
is  it .? 

We  are  such  stuff 
As  dreams  are  made  on,  and  our  little  life 
Is  rounded  with  a  sleep. 

The  Tempest,  Act  IV.  Sc.  i. 

Ay,  but  to  die,  and  go  we  know  not  where. 

Measure  for  Measure,  Act  III.  Sc.  i. 


IX         THE  UNDISCOVERED  COUNTRY      347 

The  weariest  and  most  loathed  worldly  life 
That  age,  ache,  penury,  and  imprisonment 
Can  lay  on  nature,  is  a  paradise 
To  what  we  fear  of  death. 

Ibid. 

.  .  .  the  dread  of  something  after  death, 
The  undiscover'd  country.  .   .  . 

Hamlet,  Act  III.  Sc.  i. 

...  all  our  yesterdays  have  lighted  fools 
The  way  to  dusty  death.   .  .   . 
Life's  but  a  walking  shadow. 

Macbeth,  Act  V.  Sc.  v. 

A  century  of  Protestantism  does  not  seem  to  have 
much  altered  the  attitude  of  mind  towards  death.  In 
The  New  England  Primer  for  Children,  published  in 
1737  we  get, 

Our  days  begin  with  trouble  here. 

Our  life  is  but  a  span, 
And  cruel  death  is  always  near. 

So  frail  a  thing  is  man. 

When  Steele  in  The  Tatler  writes  a  paper  on  "  Sad 
Memories,"  it  is  of  one  bereavement  after  another  that 
he  writes,  and  there  is  no  suggestion  of  resurrection. 
The  first  was  his  father's  death  : — 

"  I  remember  I  went  into  the  room  where  his  body 
lay,  and  my  mother  sat  weeping  alone  by  it.  I  had 
my  battledore  in  my  hand,  and  fell  a-beating  the  coffin, 
and  calling  papa  ;  for,  I  know  not  how,  I  had  some 
slight  idea  that  he  was  locked  up  there.  My  mother 
catched  me  in  her  arms,  and,  transported  beyond  all 
patience  of  the  silent  grief  she  was  before  in,  she  almost 
smothered  me  in  her  embraces  ;  and  told  me  in  a  flood 
of  tears,  '  Papa  could  not  hear  me,  and  would  play 
with  me  no  more,  for  they  were  going  to  put  him 
underground,  whence  he  could  never  come  to  us  again.' 
She  was  a  very  beautiful  woman,  of  a  noble  spirit,  and 
there  was  a  dignity  in  her  grief  amidst  all  the  wildness 
of  her  transport ;  which,   methought,  struck  me  with 


348  IMMORTALITY  ix 

an   instinct   of  sorrow,  that,  before  I  was  sensible   of 
what  it  was  to  grieve,  seized  my  very  soul." 

And  if  we  turn  to  the  last  optimistic  century,  and 
the  most  popular  poet  of  the  most  optimistic  of  nations, 
we  are  told  that  : — 

The  air  is  full  of  farewells  to  the  dying. 
And  mournings  for  the  dead. 

And  this  even  in  the  same  set  of  verses  in  which  he 
assures  us  : — 

There  is  no  death  !   What  seems  so  is  transition, 

Longfellow,  "  Resignation." 

Of  all  Tennyson's  poetry,  the  first  part  of  "  In 
Memoriam,"  which  voices  passionate  grief,  is  the 
truest  poetry.  It  is  here  alone  that  he  reaches  that 
region  in  which  poetry  unerringly  reveals  to  men  their 
own  thoughts  and  emotions.  The  later  part  of  the 
poem  contains  a  metaphysical  argument  that  falls  below 
the  level  of  much  of  his  other  verse,  wanting  the  touch 
of  reality. 

How  varied  are  the  sentiments  we  hear  read  at  the 
burial  of  the  dead  !  No  one  can  say  that  the  sting  of 
the  unknown  or  the  sorrow  of  bereavement  is  removed 
by  the  teaching  of  that  service.  Contrast  the  misery 
of  Psalm  xxxix.  with  the  triumphant  expression  of  St. 
Paul's  faith  in  i  Cor.  xv.  ;  and  the  committal  sentences, 
"  In  the  midst  of  life  we  are  in  death  :  of  whom  may 
we  seek  succour,  but  of  thee,  O  Lord,  who  for  our 
sins  art  justly  displeased  ,  .  ,  deliver  us  not  into  the 
bitter  pains  of  eternal  death,"  with  the  expression  of 
the  '*sure  and  certain  hope"  which  follows.  The 
misery  obliterates  any  certainty  of  hope.  It  is  quite 
impossible  that,  if  the  soul  of  the  common  people  were 
really  and  habitually  rejoicing  in  the  victory  over  death, 
the  service  could  remain  in  use  as  it  now  is  in  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer.  The  sting  of  death  remains. 
Much  as  we  wish  to  determinedly  claim  that  genuine 


IX         THE  UNDISCOVERED  COUNTRY      349 

Christianity  overcomes  all  uneasiness  in  face  of  the 
unknown,  solaces  all  passionate  grief,  we  can  only 
truthfully  assert  that  for  certain  favoured  souls  it  does  ; 
and  it  is  because  they  have  discovered  for  themselves 
some  assurance,  some  certainty,  some  glimpse  into  the 
beauty  of  the  unseen,  that  is  not  the  possession  of  the 
majority.  The  average  friendship  or  domestic  tie  does 
not  long  survive  death.  It  is  forgotten,  and  the  heart 
becomes  apathetic  to  it,  because  there  is  no  vivid  sense 
that  the  friend  in  the  unseen  is  still  the  same  and  can 
still  remember.  In  quiet  hours  memories  of  the  lost 
recur,  and  "  never  again  "  rings  through  the  soul  in 
thoughts  that  lie  too  deep  for  tears.  Neither  the 
Christian  Catholicism  of  the  first  fifteen  hundred  years, 
nor  the  Christian  Protestantism  of  the  last  five  hundred 
years,  nor  Atheism,  nor  Agnosticism,  nor  any  form  of 
free  thought  has  given  to  the  common  sensitive  man 
in  the  common  street  or  the  common  field,  lightness  of 
heart  concerning  the  death  of  his  beloved  or  in  face  of 
his  own  certain  end. 

This  condition  ought  not  to  continue.  If  Christi- 
anity is  to  be  justified  Christians  must  attain  to  a  new 
outlook  upon  the  country  beyond  the  grave. 

II.   The  Revival  of  Interest  in    the  Future  Life 

The  cause  of  our  lack  of  confidence  in  face  of  death 
is  ignorance.  The  cause  of  our  ignorance  is  largely 
that  we  have  not  sought  importunately  to  know  more 
than  we  do  of  the  soul's  further  pilgrimage  and  its 
goal.  Until  recently  the  majority  have  accepted  as 
final,  unsatisfying  traditions  concerning  the  nature  of 
the  future  life  which  the  enlightened  minority  have 
declared  to  be  discredited.  No  one  enquires  into 
matters  that  are  thought  to  be  finally  settled,  or  that 
are  not  worth  knowing.  But  for  the  last  three-quarters 
of  a  century  a  change  has  been  coming  over  religious 
thought.      Any  long-established  religion  is  liable  to  be 


350  IMMORTALITY  ix 

conservative  and  slow  to  move,  and  the  (to  us)  curious 
lack  of  interest  shown  by  the  Christianity  of  the  last 
few  centuries  in  the  future  life  is  in  harmony  with  the 
fact  that  its  accredited  teachers,  until  quite  lately, 
discouraged  all  speculative  thought  on  the  subject. 
But  this  lack  of  interest  was  quite  genuine  in  the 
common  mind,  and  was  not  imposed  by  religious 
dogma  ;  rather,  the  dogma  was  the  result  of  previous 
lack  of  interest.  No  one  will  accuse  the  philosophers 
or  poets  of  the  nineteenth  century  of  slavery  to 
dogmatism,  yet  their  lack  of  interest  in  this  subject  is 
obvious.  We  give  only  two  illustrations  out  of  many. 
Dr.  McTaggart  ^  discusses  the  fact  that  "Hegel  treats 
at  great  length  of  the  nature,  the  duties,  the  hopes,  of 
human  society,  without  paying  the  least  attention  to 
his  own  belief  that,  for  each  of  the  men  who  compose 
that  society,  life  in  it  is  but  an  infinitesimal  fragment 
of  his  whole  existence,  a  fragment  which  can  have  no 
meaning  except  in  its  relation  to  the  whole  "  ;  and  Dr. 
McTaggart  asks,  "  Can  we  believe  he  really  held  a 
doctrine  which  he  neglected  in  this  manner  ^ "  He 
goes  on  to  show  that  Hegel's  honesty  and  the  explicit 
statements  of  his  belief  in  immortality  prove  he  did 
hold  it,  and  adds  :  "  The  real  explanation,  I  think, 
must  be  found  elsewhere.  The  fact  is  that  Hegel 
does  not  seem  much  interested  in  the  question  of 
immortality,"  and  proves  this  by  showing  that,  while 
he  held  the  doctrine  he  made  no  use  of  it.  Observe, 
again,  the  obvious  lack  of  interest  in  the  conditions  of 
the  after-life  in  Wordsworth's  "  Ode,"  written  con- 
fessedly on  "  Immortality,"  and  contrast  this  with 
Tennyson's  eager  speculations  on  the  future. 

This  interest,  growing  for  fifty  years,  has  now 
become  acute  and  all  but  universal.  A  vast  death- 
dealing  conflict  of  nations  has  stung  both  the  world 
and  the  Church  into  consciousness  of  their  former 
apathy. 

^   Studies  in  Hegelian  Cosmology,  p.  5. 


IX         THE  UNDISCOVERED  COUNTRY      351 

In  other  regions  of  knowledge  the  desire  for  truth, 
and  lively  speculation  upon  a  problem,  have  always 
preceded  discovery  ;  and  if  we  believe  that  all  truth  is 
of  God  we  must  believe  all  desire  for  it  to  be  inspired 
by  Him,  and  that  persistent  effort  in  its  quest  never 
exists  without  the  co-operation  of  the  Divine  Spirit, 
and  is  therefore  bound  to  succeed.  We  may  well 
believe  this  even  though  truth,  when  found,  be  long 
sneered  at  or  neglected  or  even  utilised  by  some  for 
bad  purposes,  for  it  is  the  law  of  our  life  that  all  good 
things  may  by  man's  free  choice  be  either  neglected 
or  abused.  If  we  look  back  through  history  we  shall 
see  that  it  is  the  seeking  communities  that  have  found, 
and  that  to  those  who  in  divine  discontent  have 
hammered  on  the  door  of  truth  that  door  has  opened. 
It  was  because  the  Greek  sought  after  wisdom  and 
beauty  that  his  nation  created  the  intellectual  and 
aesthetic  tradition  of  Europe  ;  it  was  because  there 
was  always  left  a  "  seven  thousand  in  Israel  "  who  sought 
first  after  righteousness  and  the  knowledge  of  God  that 
the  Christ  was  born  a  Jew. 

If  this  be  so,  we  have  now  every  encouragement  to 
hope  that  we  shall  receive  new  enlightenment  with 
regard  to  the  future  life  if  we  seek  it  in  the  right  way. 

We  have  seen  that  some  expect  to  obtain  scientific 
certainty  as  to  the  survival  of  departed  friends  through 
the  channels  of  psychical  research.  But  even  if  this 
were  obtained,  it  would  be  merely  a  bald  fact  that 
would  at  best  only  bring  reasonable  conviction  of 
exactly  what  was  proved  and  no  more.  It  would  also 
rouse  in  us  a  thousand  more  disquieting  questions. 

What  we  need  in  this  matter  is  the  sort  of  satisfying 
knowledge  that  cannot  receive  scientific  proof,  but  is 
none  the  less  assured  for  that.  In  this  life  we  know 
that  our  friends  will  continue  to  love  us  ;  we  know 
that  Truth  and  Beauty  have  objective  reality — that  they 
exist  independently  of  us  and  that  we  shall  learn  more 
and  more  of  them.     But  this  knowledge  is  not  based  on 


352  IMMORTALITY  ix 

the  empirical  evidence  with  which  science  deals.  Yet 
how  certain  we  are  of  these  things,  what  deep  joy 
these  certainties  give  ! 

It  is  this  sort  of  intuitive  certainty  that  we  want 
to  acquire  concerning  the  continuance  of  the  soul 
after  death  with  unimpaired  powers  and  personal 
distinction.  We  wish  to  know  that  life  after  death 
is  an  enterprise  continuous  with  this,  an  enterprise 
bringing  ever- increasing  powers  of  character,  ever- 
increasing  discoveries  of  truth  and  beauty  and  love, 
ever-increasing  diversity  of  experience  and  consequently 
of  personality.  Now  all  this  is  for  us  included  in 
the  conception  of  increasing  knowledge  of  God,  in 
the  approach  to  the  direct  vision  of  God,  in  our 
conception  of  life  in  Him.  We  can  argue  about  this 
conception  of  the  next  life ;  we  can  convince  our- 
selves in  certain  hours  that  it  must  be  so  ;  but  we  want 
to  have  the  assurance  of  it,  the  unquestioning  realisa- 
tion of  it  ;  just  as  we  have  the  unquestioning,  realisa- 
tion, in  earthly  things,  of  the  objectiveness  of  beauty, 
or  of  the  loyalty  of  love,  or,  in  things  of  religion, 
that  God,  of  whom  we  are  conscious,  is  friendly  to 
us  and  to  all  mankind. 

III.  The  Path  towards  Discovery 

But  how  are  we  to  attain  to  this  unquestioning 
conviction .? 

I  believe  that  God  will  give  us  assurance  concerning 
the  life  after  death  if  we  seek  it  by  confidence  of 
prayer  and  by  travail  of  thought.  This  means  that 
four  things  are  required — prayer  rightly  understood  ; 
a  living  theology  ;  a  truer  interpretation  of  experience  ; 
and  a  consideration  of  the  goal  of  our  existence. 

Prayer 

First,  we  need  prayer  ;  but  it  must  be  the  prayer 
of  faith.      Most    of   us    have    little    faith    in    prayer. 


IX         THE  UNDISCOVERED  COUNTRY      353 

We  fix  our  minds  on  something  we  want  to  get 
from  God,  or  on  the  hope  for  instruction  about 
something  we  want  to  do.  We  picture  to  ourselves 
the  thing  we  ask.  We  ask  for  it  first  with  complete 
expectation  that  we  shall  have  what  we  picture ;  then, 
when  the  answer  tarries,  with  entreaty  and  some  persist- 
ence. We  may  not  get  what  we  have  pictured  to 
ourselves  ;  then  we  are  discouraged.  What  child  has 
not  gone  through  this  experience  ?  After  that  come 
explanations  from  religious  teachers,  by  which  the  things 
which  Jesus  said  about  prayer  are  explained  away. 
Some  teachers  tell  us  that  we  shall  seldom  get  what  we 
want,  but  that  we  must  go  on  praying  because  it  is 
a  duty,  and  God  will  give  us  spiritual  endowments  by 
which  we  can  successfully  meet  the  lack  of  those  good 
things  for  which  we  ask  Him.  They  also  explain 
that  even  such  dutiful  prayer  is  only  to  be  offered 
according  to  certain  elaborate  conditions  of  self-abase- 
ment. At  this  explanation  those  who  have  made 
childlike  prayers  divide  into  three  classes.  The  first 
class  turn  away,  for  they  feel  that  they  have  been 
offered  a  stone  for  bread  ;  or,  if  they  continue  to  pray, 
they  seek  vaguely  for  a  good  they  do  not  attempt  to 
picture,  and  in  their  habits  of  prayer  they  do  not 
lay  hold  of  God  for  any  special  purpose.  The  second 
class  make  a  habit  of  repeating  definite  prayers  without 
expecting  much  result.  They  have  not  the  faith  that 
will  bring  light  to  the  world.  The  third,  and  much 
the  smallest  class,  give  themselves  to  realising  the 
conditions  laid  down,  and  praying  with  ardour  and 
expectation  for  what  they  believe  to  be  purely  spiritual 
gifts,  but  in  doing  so  they  seek  to  belittle  human 
spontaneity  and  natural  affection, 

I  do  not  think  that  such  explanations  are  true  or 
right.  What  Jesus  taught  about  prayer  is  meaningless 
if  what  God  sees  to  be  good  for  us  is  usually  the 
thwarting  of  our  natural  wishes.  God  is  more  than 
able  to  give  Himself  with  every  gift  we  ask  for,  so  that 

2  A 


354  IMMORTALITY  ix 

each  gift  becomes  a  sacrament  of  His  grace.     Prayer 
that  has  not  the  momentum  of  impulse  and  spontaneous 
desire,  and    does  not   leap  forward  with   the   hope  of 
gratification,  will  never  attain  its  full  growth,  or  serve 
us  in  such  hours  of  the  world's  need  as  we  experience 
to-day.     The  reason  that  we  do  not  get  what  we  expect 
when  we  pray  is  that  our  expectation  of  future  circum- 
stances is  always  fallacious.     When  men  set  aside  all 
natural  desire,  and  pray  for  some  spiritual  benefit  for 
themselves,  or  others,  or  for  the  world,  they  do  not  get 
what  they  definitely  expect  any  more  than  in  simpler 
prayers   for   other   delights.     And   if  we  turn   at   any 
point  to  the  process  of  life,  and  look  at  it  with  candid 
eyes,  we  shall  see  that  the  end  which  any  one  proposes 
as  the   result  of  a   course   of  action   is  very  different 
from    the    end    he    achieves  ;     and    this    is   most    true 
when    the    course    of  action    is    most    successful.       If 
any  of  us  look  back  to  our  own  childhood  or  youth, 
and  can  remember  the  vivid  pictures  we  often  painted 
for  ourselves  of  future  joys,  together  with  the  reality 
that  happened  along  the  line   of  our   expectation,  we 
shall    see    how    different    was    the    real   joy    from   the 
imaginary,    even    when    quite    satisfying.      We    shall 
realise  that  the  mental   picture   was   more   often   than 
not    tawdry    and    artificial.      Memory    is    short  ;     we 
are    not   conscious   of  any    feeling   of  disappointment 
when  we   enjoy  something  quite   different   from   what 
we  anticipated.     But  if  our   mind   remained   fixed  on 
our  first  expectations,  we  should  always  be  disappointed. 
It   is  true  of  life  generally  that  the  eye  of  the  mind 
hath  not  seen,  nor  the  ear  of  the  mind  heard,  the  things 
that  the  future  has  really  in  store.     But  in  prayer  our 
expectations,  because  of  repetition,  remain  more  fixed, 
and  we  expect  a  speedy  realisation,  an  artificial  notion 
of  Divine  omnipotence  rendering  us  unreasonable.     A 
mother,  if  omnipotent,  would   not  give  her  child  what 
it   cries   for  when   it   cries  for  the  moon  ;   she  would 
give  it  a  yellow  ball,  for  that  is  what  it  really  wants. 


IX         THE  UNDISCOVERED  COUNTRY      355 

The  important  truth  —  the  real  explanation  of 
disappointment  in  prayer — is  that  what  we  picture  in 
our  mood  of  hope  is  seldom  what  we  should  hope  for  if 
we  understood  our  real  desires.  A  child  cries  for  a 
complex  and  difficult  toy  ;  but  what  he  wants  is  the  sort 
of  pleasure  the  toy  would  give  if  he  were  mature  enough 
to  take  care  of  it  and  understand  how  to  work  it. 
The  pleasure  he  desires  can  only  be  given  through 
another  plaything.  A  man  pictures  himself  as  happy 
with  a  certain  woman  for  his  wife,  but  what  he  really 
wants  is  a  mated  happiness  which  might  or  might 
not  be  possible  with  her.  Or  if  it  is  merely  mated 
happiness  he  pictures,  he  may  want  other  things  more 
which  would  be  incompatible  with  it.  And  so  with 
all  the  round  of  life  :  God  could  not  give  us  what 
we  want  if  He  gave  us  what  we  think  we  want.  So 
in  prayer  :  there  is  no  evidence  that  the  good  we 
really  want  when  we  pray,  is  not  given  to  us  just  as 
quickly  as  it  is  possible  for  us  to  assimilate  it  to 
our  other  benefits  and  enjoy  it.  Faith  realises  that 
we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being  in  the  love 
of  God,  just  as  a  long-wished- for  babe  lives  and  moves 
and  has  its  being  in  its  parents'  love.  It  is  impossible 
for  us  to  turn  the  attention  of  our  souls  toward  God 
without  receiving,  when  burdened  with  any  desire, 
the  gratification  of  the  desire.  That  is  what  Jesus 
said,  and  it  is  absolutely  and  unreservedly  true.  But 
we  must  realise  that  in  prayer,  as  in  every  other 
aspect  of  our  life,  we  have  consciously  but  a  dim 
knowledge  of  the  end  we  have  in  view.  In  the  ordinary 
affairs  of  life,  if  we  form  no  picture  of  the  ends  we 
have  in  view,  and  seek  not  to  attain  them,  we  shall 
become  futile.  So  in  prayer  some  definite  picture  of 
what  we  want  is  necessary,  even  though  we  recognise 
that  the  picture  may  have  but  a  distant  likeness  to 
what  we  really  and  whole-heartedly  desire. 

It  is  only  when  we  realise  that  prayer  never  fails 
that   we   can    have   faith.      It    is   because   prayer    never 


2S6  IMMORTALITY  ix 

fails  that  we  should  betake  ourselves  to  prayer,  when 
we  feel  the  burden  of  ignorance  about  the  undiscovered 
country  beyond  the  grave.  What  do  we  want  when 
we  are  in  this  sorrow  ?  We  want  to  know  that  those 
who  were  so  kind  and  attractive  and  pleasant  when 
with  us  are  alive  and  well  and  making  good  progress 
in  another  country^  that  no  loss  of  memory  or  com- 
prehension separates  their  minds  from  ours  ;  that  when 
we  go  to  them  they  will  still  be  the  same  to  us,  but 
better  off  for  the  experiences  of  the  years  of  separation. 
We  do  not  dress  in  black,  or  subdue  our  laughter 
because  a  son  or  father,  a  daughter  or  friend,  has  gone 
to  fill  some  good  appointment  in  a  far  land,  where 
we  conceive  that  love  and  character  and  fortune  may 
mature  before  we  clasp  hands  with  them  again.  It  is 
this  that  we  want  to  know  about  our  dead.  Let  us, 
then,  take  our  wants  passionately  to  God,  assured  that 
He  will  give  us,  not  any  detailed  pieces  of  information, 
but  something  more  and  better  than  we  can  ask  or  think. 
He  will  give  us  increasing  knowledge  of  Himself,  and, 
included  in  that,  increasing  knowledge  of  our  dead. 

^  Living  Theology 

The  great  Christian  theologians,  each  in  his  own  day, 
pushed  forward  the  faith  by  their  whole  individual  might 
of  intellectual  travail.  They  have  left  us  a  splendid 
heritage.  But  when  Christian  theology  becomes  tradi- 
tionalism and  men  fail  to  hold  and  use  it  as  they  do 
a  living  language,  it  becomes  an  obstacle,  not  a  help 
to  religious  conviction.  To  the  greatest  of  the  early 
Fathers  and  the  great  scholastics  theology  was  a  lan- 
guage which,  like  all  language,  had  a  grammar  and  a 
vocabulary  from  the  past,  but  which  they  used  to 
express  all  the  knowledge  and  experience  of  their  own 
time  as  well.  They  enlarged  its  vocabulary ;  they 
modified  its  grammar.  But  in  this  particular  of  helping 
the  common  man  to  rejoice  in  the  sure  knowledge  of 


IX         THE  UNDISCOVERED  COUNTRY      357 

the  immortal  life,  their  lack  of  knowledge — e.g.  of  the 
origin  of  the  Apocalyptic  imagery — hampered  them, 
and  they  had  only  a  very  partial  success.  And  yet  it 
is  probable  that  in  their  time  the  ordinary,  unlearned 
Christian,  with  the  priest  at  his  bedside,  felt  more 
complacency  as  to  the  death  of  his  dear  ones  or  of 
himself  than  did  his  heathen  forefathers.  But  since 
Thomas  Aquinas  wrote  his  Summa  a  world  of  new 
knowledge  has  swum  into  our  ken  ;  and  the  tradi- 
tionalism which  refuses  to  assimilate  this  into  the 
splendid  structure  of  Christian  theology  has  been 
rampant. 

This  distinction  between  living  Christian  theology 
and  traditionalism  is  of  the  greatest  importance.  Just 
as  a  language  that  expresses  a  great  civilisation  is  a 
great  mental  achievement,  inspired  by  the  Spirit,  built 
up  by  the  many,  and  greatly  advanced  by  each  genius 
who  uses  it,  so  is  the  theology  of  any  honest  religion  ; 
and  of  all  religions  the  most  intellectual,  the  most  finely 
thought  out,  is  Christianity  ;  the  classical  Christian 
theology  was  the  greatest  of  all  the  structural  growths 
of  human  thought  about  God  and  man.  But  we  must 
cease  any  longer  to  acquiesce  in  the  teaching  of  Chris- 
tianity as  a  dead  language.  It  is  as  a  dead  language 
that  the  multitudes  to-day  have  been  taught  the  doctrine 
of  the  Resurrection.  And  because  of  this  they  have 
not  learned  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Christ  about  death,  or 
at  least  have  learned  but  a  small  portion  of  it. 

Christ  came  to  give  us  unbounded  hope  and  con- 
fidence in  the  willingness  of  God  to  impart  fresh  truth. 
At  the  end  of  the  first  Christian  age  the  most  thought- 
ful of  our  Lord's  followers  interpreted  His  teaching 
thus : — 

"Truly,  truly,  I  tell  you  all,  you  shall  see  heaven 
open  wide,  and  God's  angels  ascending  and  descending 
upon  the  Son  of  Man."  ^ 

"  Truly,  truly,  I  tell  you,  he  who  believes  in  me  will 

1  John  i.  51,  Moffatt's  trans. 


358  IMMORTALITY  ix 

do  the  very  deeds  I  do,  and  still  greater  deeds  than 
these.  For  I  am  going  to  the  Father,  and  I  will  do 
whatever  you  ask  in  my  name."  ^ 

"  I  have  still  much  to  say  to  you,  but  you  cannot 
bear  it  just  now.  However,  when  the  Spirit  of  Truth 
comes  he  will  lead  you  all  to  the  truth,  for  he  will  not 
speak  of  his  own  accord,  he  will  say  whatever  he  is 
told  ...  he  will  draw  upon  what  is  mine  and  disclose 
It  to  you. 

In  the  Synoptic  Gospels  we  see  Jesus  declaring  in  all 
the  ways  in  which  it  is  possible  to  speak  that  those  who 
seek  to  understand  have  free  access  to  the  wisdom  of 
heaven.  '*Ask,  and  it  shall  be  given."  The  least  in 
His  Kingdom  is  said  by  Jesus  to  be  greater  than  the 
greatest  prophets  of  a  former  age.  To  His  followers 
He  says,  "  Unto  you  it  is  given  to  know  the  mysteries 
of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but  to  them  it  is  not  given. 
For  whosoever  hath,  to  him  shall  be  given,  and  he 
shall  have  abundance."  ^ 

The  first  friends  of  Jesus  bear  witness  to  the  spirit 
of  wisdom  and  knowledge  which  they  believe  to  be  the 
gift  of  the  risen  Christ.  Thus  in  Acts,  St.  Peter  says 
to  the  chief  priests,  "  We  are  his  witnesses,  and  so  is 
also  the  Holy  Ghost  whom  God  has  given  to  them 
that  obey  him."  ^  And  St.  Paul  to  the  Corinthians 
says,  *'  But  the  manifestation  of  the  spirit  is  given  to 
every  man  to  profit  withal.  For  to  one  is  given 
by  the  spirit  the  word  of  wisdom,  to  another  the  word 
of  knowledge  by  the  same  spirit."^  In  the  bene- 
diction that  ends  2  Peter  believers  are  bidden  to  ''  grow 
in  grace  and  in  knowledge."  St.  Paul  desires  for  the 
Philippians  "  that  your  love  may  abound  yet  more  and 
more  in  knowledge  and  all  discernment  ;  so  that  ye 
may  try  the  things  that  differ."  ^  In  the  comparatively 
brief  writings  of  the  New  Testament   the  number  of 

1  John  xiv.  12,  Moftatt's  trans. 
2  John  xvi,  12-13,  Hid.  ^  Matt.  xiii.  11-12. 

*  Acts  V.  32.  ^   I  Cor.  xii.  7-8.  ^  Philipp.  i.  9-10. 


IX         THE  UNDISCOVERED  COUNTRY      359 

passages  in  which  the  Spirit  of  Christ  is  associated  with 
increasing  knowledge  and  increasing  understanding  is 
so  striking  a  feature  that  it  is  surprising  that  the  vital 
connection  between  the  possession  of  the  Christian  spirit 
and  increasing  knowledge  ever  became  obscured  or 
denied. 

Again,  if  we  are  seeking,  daily  praying  and  knocking 
upon  the  door  of  heaven,  for  more  abundant  knowledge 
concerning  the  life  after  death,  let  us  note  that  Jesus 
clearly  said  that  truth  can  only  be  shown  to  "  whosoever 
hath  ears  to  hear."  Are  we  listening — listening  intently 
to  Truth,  who  is  always  speaking  in  the  "  still  small 
voice  "  of  the  mind.^ — to  Truth,  who  is  always  speaking 
parables  in  the  science  of  history  and  in  the  discoveries 
of  science  concerning  all  that  world  that  lies  open  to  our 
physical  sense  .''  Just  as  it  is  the  province  of  science  to 
find  out  what  the  facts  of  life  are,  to  classify  them  and 
use  them  to  verify  or  discredit  whatever  theory  may 
have  been  advanced  concerning  them,  so  it  is  the 
province  of  a  living  theology  to  be  constantly  seeking 
from  God  the  wit  and  wisdom  that  will  interpret  anew 
and  more  truly  the  parable  of  life. 

We  cannot  do  more  here  than  give  three  illustra- 
tions of  the  way  in  which  accepted  Christian  doctrines 
may  be  cross-examined  in  such  a  way  that  they  may 
yield  increasing  help  on  the  problem  of  the  immortal 
life,  taking  as  examples  the  doctrines  of  the  Resurrec- 
tion, the  Invocation  of  Saints,  and  the  Communion  of 
Saints. 

Christian  theology  has  always  insisted  that  on  His 
Resurrection  our  Lord  took  His  humanity  into  the 
next  world.  As  we  believe  that  on  earth  He  lived 
manifesting  the  ideal  humanity,  we  must  believe  that 
it  was  the  ideal  humanity  that  He  manifested  in  His 
passage  into  the  next  world.  Years  after  He  had  died 
St.  Paul  believed  himself  to  see  Him  and  speak  to 
Him  again  and  again.  St.  Paul  was  not  alone  in  this  : 
immediately  after  our  Lord's  death  His  closest  friends 


36o  IMMORTALITY  ix 

appear  frequently  to  have  seen  Him  and  known  Him. 
In  the  early  Christian  records  we  have  very  vivid  pic- 
tures of  such  experiences.     Nor  have  we  any  real  reason 
to    suppose  that  this  power  in    Jesus  Christ  to   make 
Himself  known  to  men  on  earth  in  any  way  diminished 
as  time  passed  on  earth.     All  down  the  centuries  cer- 
tain faithful  souls  have  given  witness  to  the  same  sort 
of  experience,  and  notably  in  the  foreign  mission-field 
to-day  it  is  possible  to  find  innumerable  humble  workers 
with  whom   awareness   of  their   Lord's   presence  and 
inward  conversation  with  Him  is  a  vivid  and  common 
experience.     We  may,  if  we  will,  believe  that  the  com- 
munion Jesus  held  with  His  followers  after  His  death  was 
telepathic,  but  that  the  strength  of  His  spirit  and  His 
love  were  such  that  He  could  give  clearer  and  stronger 
impressions  of  His  presence  than  other  spirits  can  ;  or 
we  may,  if  we  please,  believe  that  all  spirits  in  the  next 
world  clothe  themselves  in  some  ethereal  form,  and  that 
He  had  the  power  to  make  this  form  manifest  while 
faith  was  very  weak  ;  but  the  truth  we  must  perceive 
to   be   essential   is   that  this  power   to   make   Himself 
known   and    to   re-create   the  flagging  spirits  of  His 
friends  is  associated  with  the  unique  moral  and  spiritual 
achievement  of  His  life  ;  which  suggests  that  the  men 
and  women  who  come  nearest  to  the  moral  and  spiritual 
level  of  His  life  here  will  be  those  who  have  most 
power  in  the  beyond  to  touch  and  help  the  friends  they 
have  left  and  all  who  in  all  times  are  working  for  the 
reign  of  God. 

The  author  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  reports  His  Master 
as  saying  just  before  His  death  to  His  disciples  : 
"  Whither  I  go  ye  know,  and  the  way  ye  know  .  .  . 
I  am  the  Way."  This  strongly  suggests  that  the  way 
in  which  in  the  after-life  He  lived  in  ever  closer  fellow- 
ship with  His  followers  on  earth  has  a  bearing  on  the 
problem  of  our  own  passing  into  the  next  life,  on  the 
conditions  in  which  we  shall  exist  there,  and  upon  what 
sort  of  conduct  here  will  enhance  our  future  powers  of 


IX        THE  UNDISCOVERED  COUNTRY     361 

living  in  communion  with  our  friends  on  earth.  The 
outstanding  idea  we  seem  to  gather  from  our  Lord's 
example  and  teaching  is  that  the  better  and  nobler  the 
life  here  the  more  closely  it  will  be  associated  with  the 
helping  of  humanity  after  death.  The  assumption  of 
Oriental  speculation  that  the  reverse  is  the  case  is 
founded  upon  belief  in  the  inherent  evil  of  matter,  and 
the  consequent  belief  that  time  and  progress  must  free 
the  spirit  more  and  more  from  association  with  it.  But 
Christian  experience  is  Hke  the  sunshine  of  spring,  which 
glorifies  all  matter,  causing  it  to  break  forth  into  bloom 
and  song  ;  and  it  teaches  that  the  higher  and  stronger 
the  flight  of  a  human  spirit  into  the  heavens,  the  more 
it  is  able  to  return  upon  the  rays  of  divine  light  and 
bless  the  earth. 

In  the  practice  of  the  Invocation  of  Saints  Christian 
consciousness  has  witnessed  to  the  belief  that  they  who 
have  attained  some  special  degree  of  grace  upon  earth 
are  able  in  the  after-life  to  hear  the  prayers  of  the 
living  and  to  give  them  wisdom  and  aid.  Where  we 
think  this  doctrine  has  become  artificial  and  uncon- 
vincing is  in  the  assumption  that  any  earthly  organisation 
has  the  insight  to  decide  who  are  or  are  not  the  best 
men  and  women,  together  with  the  assumption  that 
God  is  such  that  we  need  them  as  mediators  of  our 
prayers  to  Him.  We  find  that  canonisation  has  often 
been  decided  by  a  standard  of  values  which  we  cannot, 
in  this  age  of  the  world,  acknowledge.  It  is  not  that 
many  of  these  canonised  saints  have  not  lived  most 
nobly,  but  that  we  are  sure  that  hundreds  of  men  and 
women,  whose  lives  have  made  little  appeal  to  the 
admiration  of  the  official  Church,  have  Hved  as  nobly 
and  in  as  close  communion  with  God,  If  the  power 
to  return  and  bless  the  earth,  and  cheer  and  elevate 
children  and  children's  children,  is  the  reward  of  moral 
achievement,  these  also  must  have  won  the  power. 
Just  as  all  who  live  nobly  on  earth  in  manifesting  their 
truth  and  love  to  us  manifest  God,  so  any  of  these  who 


362  IMMORTALITY 


IX 


have  passed  beyond  the  reach  of  our  senses  may  touch 
our  souls  and  manifest  God  to  us  in  other  ways.  We 
all  know  Browning's  verses  entitled  "Apparitions,"  in 
which  beauty  is  revealed  to  him  in  a  flower,  hope  in  a 
star,  and  God  in  a  human  face.  Such  apparitions  of 
beauty  on  earth  are  of  Heaven,  and  the  beauty  that 
may  come  to  us  in  the  silent  experience  of  the  soul  by 
the  touch  of  some  noble  discarnate  spirit  will  be  also 
of  God.  Such  unseen  "  apparitions  "  as  are  the  mani- 
festation of  God  in  the  medium  through  which  He 
chooses  to  appear  bear  no  relation  to  those  unhappy 
"  ghosts  "  that  are  supposed  to  haunt  certain  localities 
or  certain  people,  and  as  a  fact  engender  only  moods  of 
fear  and  curiosity.  Our  reasons  for  doubting  whether 
these  bear  evidence  to  the  presence  of  discarnate  spirits 
have  been  already  given. ^ 

Let  us  now  consider  what  fresh  light  on  our  problem 
the  doctrine  of  "  the  Communion  of  Saints  "  may  yield. 

In  an  essay  in  Concerning  Prayer^  I  have  en- 
deavoured to  show  that  because  salvation  for  humanity 
must  be  a  social  salvation,  the  communion  of  saints,  or 
the  ties  which  bind  together  human  society  in  the  next 
life  and  in  this,  ought  to  be  realised  in  our  thoughts 
and  in  our  prayers.  We  must  reflect  that  fellowship  is 
of  the  very  essence  of  Christianity,  and  we  cannot 
perfectly  realise  fellowship  with  the  living  if  we  do  not 
regard  friendship  as  something  stronger  than  death, 
something  unimpaired  by  death.  It  is  true  of  every 
spiritual  or  social  development  that  it  takes  its  tone 
and  standard  from  the  end  in  view,  and  if  we  look 
forward  to  the  truncating  of  any  friendship  by  death, 
or  to  its  sudden  vapouring  off  into  something  incon- 
ceivable, its  whole  standard  will  be  lower,  much  lower, 
than  if  we  realise  the  meaning  of  the  communion  of 
souls  in  this  life  and  the  next.  This  will  also  be  true 
of  our  wider  social  friendships.  How  different  would  be 
our  service  to  the  cause  of  "  the  poor,"  "  the  drunkard," 

^  Essay  VII.  p.  278.  ^  Essay  on  "  Prayer  for  the  Dead." 


IX         THE  UNDISCOVERED  COUNTRY      363 

"  the  prostitute,"  or  "  the  party  politician,"  if  we  realised 
the  certainty  of  meeting  each  now  unknown  person 
benefited  or  injured  by  our  efforts,  and  discussing  our 
motives  and  methods  with  them  in  a  future  life  in 
which  all  concealment  had  become  impossible,  and  in 
which  their  welfare  and  ours  were  plainly  inter- 
dependent. It  is  not  left  to  us  to  choose  whether  our 
salvation  shall  be  social  or  not ;  we  are  born  into  a 
bond  far  closer  than  that  of  earthly  kindred — a  tele- 
pathic bond  including  every  other  human  soul.  Their 
thoughts,  their  feelings,  their  acts  of  will,  are  woven 
into  the  mental  atmosphere  in  which  we  live,  whether 
we  will  or  no.  We  inherit  our  very  thoughts  and 
feehngs  from  all  past  generations  ;  the  knowledge  that 
they  have  accumulated  is  the  very  breath  of  our  minds  ; 
and  if  man  is  immortal,  as  we  believe,  they  all  await  us 
in  another  world,  where,  if  such  evidence  as  we  now 
have  of  telepathy  be  any  promise  for  the  future,^  our 
connection  with  them  will  be  far  closer  than  it  is  now, 
so  that  our  fate  will  be  still  more  closely  bound  up 
with  theirs.  It  therefore  not  only  behoves  us  to  desire 
to  know  more  concerning  the  social  nature  of  our 
salvation  both  here  and  hereafter,  but  to  pray  for  the 
welfare  of  those  who  have  passed  into  the  unseen  as 
we  pray  for  our  own. 

Along  similar  lines  other  of  the  tenets  of  Christian 
theology  might,  if  interrogated,  help  us  to  a  clearer  know- 
ledge of  the  after-life.  They  are  rich  in  truths  that  lie 
undeveloped,  and  the  work  of  many  minds  is  needed  for 
their  development.  In  late  centuries  the  Church  has 
been  all  too  remiss.     A  contemporary  writer  observes : 

'*  The  conception  of  immortality  brought  to  light  in 
the  Gospel  .  .  .  such  a  reinforcement,  and  enrichment, 
and  intensity  of  life  beyond  the  grave  as  no  language 
can  describe,  no  imagination  picture  forth  .  .  .  was  the 
'  hope  of  glory,'  begun  in  foretaste  here.  .  .  .  Not 
mere  continuance  of  such  a  life,  even  at  its  best,  as  we 

1  Cf.  Essay  III.  p.  no. 


364  IMMORTALITY  ix 

now  enjoy  ;  but  a  full  realisation  of  what  comes  to  us 
here  only  in  inspired  moments,  in  ecstatic  foreshadow- 
ings,  in  dreams  and  visions  of  the  soul.  .  .  .  The 
Resurrection  Life  of  Jesus  was  the  morning-star  of  this 
glorious  day.  This  it  was  that  set  the  seal  on  his 
promise  that  where  he  was  they  should  be  also,  and 
filled  them  all  with  such  confidence.  ...  It  is  strange, 
but  true,  that  the  Christian  Church  has  only  realised 
at  rare  intervals  in  its  long  history  the  splendour  of 
this  vision,  and  has  lived  under  its  inspiration  only  by 
fits  and  starts."  ^ 

We  must  hope  and  pray  that  our  modern  theologians 
may  take  heart  of  grace  and  help  the  questioning  world. 

Reinterpretation  of  Experience 

Theology  deals  chiefly  with  the  religious  experience 
of  the  past,  and  the  interpretation  that  great  thinkers 
give  to  that  experience  ;  but  we  have  also  our  own 
present  experience  to  interrogate. 

Let  us,  then,  candidly  ask  whether  this  life  is  really 
in  our  experience  as  much  cut  off  from  the  next  as  we 
are  apt  to  believe. 

It  is  quite  possible  that  we  have  made  an  entire 
mistake  in  supposing  that  the  souls  of  our  dead  friends 
are  cut  off  from  us.  When  a  soul  develops  the  God 
consciousness  it  finds  God  continually  within  and  with- 
out; communion  with  God  becomes  a  constant  and 
familiar  reality.  It  is  not  to  be  imagined  that  God 
was  not  with  such  a  soul  before,  as  well  as  after,  its 
awakening.  Just  so,  it  is  at  least  possible  that  our 
souls  may  have  communion  with  the  discarnate  souls 
of  those  they  have  loved  on  earth,  but  may  be  unaware 
of  the  fact,  for  we  overlook  many  things  in  our  lives 
till  we  obtain  some  new  light  upon  their  nature  and 
importance. 

I  would  like  to  illustrate  what  I   mean   by   tran- 

^  Faith  and  Immortality,  by  Dr.  E.  Griffith- Jones,  pp.  305-307. 


IX         THE  UNDISCOVERED  COUNTRY      365 

scribing  what  I  believe  to  embody  a  true  experience. 
It  is  a  colloquy  between  a  widow  and  a  modern  vicar. 
The  latter,  having  lost  his  only  daughter  at  the  same 
time  as  his  son  was  killed  in  the  war,  had  been  plunged 
into  depression  and  had  received  great  comfort  from 
visiting  a  medium  through  whose  lips  he  believed  he 
had  caught  characteristic  messages  from  his  children. 
In  paying  a  visit  he  spoke  of  this  in  confidence  to  the 
widow,  saying  at  the  same  time  how  inadequate  he  had 
found  the  ordinary  consolations  of  religion. 

"  Well,"  said  she,  "  when  I  was  young  I  lost  my 
husband.  I  was  mad  with  grief.  He  was  all  the 
world  to  me,  and  I  was  a  silly  little,  thing  without 
much  religion  and  with  almost  no  faith  ;  and  I  had 
the  children  to  bring  up,  and  no  one  to  help  me.  I 
just  raged  against  God  for  taking  my  James  from  me. 
So  when  the  parson  came  I  raged  at  him  for  calling  a 
God  like  that  good.  All  he  said  was,  '  I  don't  know 
whether  your  husband's  death  was  God's  will  or  not. 
It  may  have  happened  because  of  the  sinful  condition 
of  the  world  ;  but  of  one  thing  I  am  quite  sure,  and 
that  is  that  it  is  God's  will  to  be  your  Comforter.'  " 

"  Yes,"  said  the  vicar,  "  we  all  say  that,  but  comfort 
sometimes  comes  through  indirect  channels,  and  I  think 
that  in  Spiritualism  God  may  be  guiding  us  to  find 
such  a  channel.  Did  you  find  the  comfort  of  which  he 
spoke .'' " 

"  I  will  tell  you  what  happened  if  you  care  to  know," 
said  the  widow.  "  I  didn't  believe  I  should  get  comfort 
his  way.  I  was  angry  at  heart,  but  I  was  honest.  I 
asked  the  parson  how  God  could  comfort  me,  and  he 
said  that  God  could  be  to  me  all  that  my  husband  had 
been,  and  more.  I  was  so  angry  that  I  got  in  the  way 
of  defying  God  in  my  heart.  A  dozen  times  a  day, 
when  I  wanted  my  husband,  I  would  say  to  God,  *  Now 
and  here,  this  is  what  I  need,  and  you  can't  give  it  to 
me.'  Perhaps  it  would  be  advice  I  wanted  ;  perhaps 
I  wanted  to  show  my  husband  how  bonny  the  children 


366  IMMORTALITY  ix 

were  ;  perhaps  I  wanted  to  tell  him  of  the  clever  things 
they  said  ;  or  perhaps  I  was  tired  and  wanted  a  hand 
to  help.  I  thought  this  was  a  wicked  habit  of  mine, 
telling  God  that  He  couldn't  meet  my  needs.  But  after 
a  while  I  came  somehow  to  feel  that  God  liked  the 
honesty  of  it.  Sometimes  I  seemed  to  think  quite 
suddenly  and  unexpectedly  of  the  Lord  Christ  looking 
at  me  with  a  twinkle  in  His  eye  " — she  paused  for  a 
few  moments.  "  It  was  just  wonderful  how,  some  way 
or  other,  after  a  few  months  the  world  was  all  full  of 
God  for  me.  I  was  very  young  and  foolish,  and  I  am 
none  too  wise  now,  but  I  have  known  a  secret  since 
that  time  that  I  can't  put  into  words.  But  what  I 
was  going  to  tell  you  when  I  began  was  something  else. 
It  was  one  day  a  year  after  my  husband  died,  and  I 
went  out  with  God  into  the  garden  to  get  some  flowers 
to  put  on  his  grave,  and  there,  suddenly,  I  knew  that 
my  husband  himself  was  there  with  me  in  the  garden — 
just  himself,  only  braver  and  stronger  and  more  happy 
than  I  had  ever  known  him." 

"  Did  you  see  anything .?  "  asked  the  vicar. 

"  Oh  no.  I  thank  God  I  have  always  kept  my  five 
wits  about  me.  If  the  sort  of  form  he  had  were  the 
kind  my  eyes  could  see,  of  course  I  should  see  him  all 
the  time,  and  not  occasionally  standing  about  like  a 
silly  ghost." 

"  Did  you  hear  anything  ? "  enquired  the  vicar. 

"  No,  I  didn't.  How  could  I  hear  what  I  couldn't 
see  : 

"  How  did  you  know  that  he  was  there .'' "  asked 
the  vicar. 

"  I  don't  know  how  I  knew — but  I  knew  ;  and 
times  and  times  since  I  have  known  ;  and  if  you  want 
any  proof  that  what  I  tell  you  is  true,  I  should  say. 
Apply  the  old  test — look  for  the  fruits  !  Look  at  my 
children.  Do  you  think  the  foolish  undisciplined  girl 
that  I  was  could  have  trained  and  taught  them  as  they 
have  been  trained  and  taught .''     What  I  think  is  that 


IX         THE  UNDISCOVERED  COUNTRY      367 

whatever  comfort  you  got  through  your  medium,  I  got 
a  better  form  of  comfort,  for  I  found  God  and  my 
husband  too." 

Afterwards,  in  speaking  about  it,  the  vicar  remarked 
that  she  was  evidently  an  unusual  woman,  spiritually 
minded,  healthy  and  intelligent  ;  but  he  added  that 
he  also  thought  she  had  a  lively  imagination,  and  he 
questioned  the  veridical  nature  of  her  experiences.  As 
for  me,  I  question  the  veridical  nature  of  his  ;  I  do  not 
find  his  evidence  at  all  convincing. 

The  Goal  of  Existence 

We  have  seen  that  in  our  knocking  at  the  door 
of  knowledge  concerning  the  life  after  death  we  must 
seek  to  enter  into  the  past  of  Christian  experience  and 
its  interpretation,  and  that  we  must  also  seek  to  enter 
with  more  intelligence  and  patience  into  the  present 
experience  of  the  inner  life.  Lastly,  it  is  evident  that 
whatever  we  may  learn  about  the  goal  of  our  existence 
must  throw  light  upon  our  relations  here  and  hereafter, 
and  the  relation  between  the  here  and  hereafter. 

There  are  two  distinct  conceptions  of  the  ultimate 
future  of  man  ;  the  one  seems  to  be  founded  upon  the 
ecstasy  of  mystic  vision,  the  other  upon  the  experience 
of  the  excellence  of  fellowship  or  friendship.  In  the 
one  conception  high  Heaven  is  a  rapture  in  which  all 
particulars  are  fused  into  the  Infinite  :  in  the  other 
the  Heavenly  state  is  social,  emphasising  personal 
distinctions.  Let  us  consider  these  two  ideals  in  more 
detail. 

The  irradiation  of  the  inner  vision  when  the  soul 
first  becomes  conscious  of  God  is  an  experience  in 
comparison  with  which  all  other  aspects  of  life  seem 
partial  and  poor.  When  a  man  is  not  brought  up  in 
the  God-consciousness — which  a  child  ought  to  share 
with  its  mother  from  the  dawn  of  life — the  first  hour 
of  his   consciousness   of  God   is  often    ecstatic.      In    it 


368  IMMORTALITY  ix 

the  power  of  thought  fails  ;  hence  all  distinctions  are 
blurred,  and  the  new  experience  of  self-devotion  or 
self-forgetfulness  which  the  thought  of  God  evokes  is 
confused  with  the  loss  of  all  outline,  all  character,  all 
individuality,  in  the  sense  of  infinitude.^  This  failure 
of  the  power  of  thought  in  times  of  great  emotion  is  a 
consequence  of  our  insufficiency.  We  are,  as  yet,  too 
weak,  too  undeveloped,  to  feel  greatly  and  to  think 
clearly  at  the  same  time.  One  transcendent  idea  pro- 
duces a  state  of  mental  rest,  necessary  to  our  feebleness, 
since  the  rhythm  of  our  immature  lives  is  as  yet  slow.^ 
But  because  this  is  our  beginning  in  the  apprehen- 
sion of  God,  it  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  it  to  be  the 
goal.  This  mistake  arises  from  our  confusion  of  God 
— whom  we  dimly  perceive,  and  the  clear  apprehension 
of  whom  is  our  goal — with  the  effect  upon  our  weak- 
ness of  perceiving  Him.  God  is  the  beauty  from 
which  all  beauty  comes,  the  truth  in  which  all  truth 
centres.  He  imparts  the  health,  the  mirth,  the  energy 
of  life,  because  these  are  His  attributes.  He  is  also 
the  personality  in  whose  love  our  personal  characters 
become  worthy.  Thus,  when  we  first  become  personally 
aware  of  His  beauty  and  delightfulness,  thought  fails  ; 
nor  are  we  conscious  of  volition,  but  only  of  being 
attracted  and  of  His  attraction.  But  this  incapacity  of 
ours  to  think  clearly,  to  will  strongly,  while  we  feel 
intense  attraction,  is  not  the  supreme  good.  God  is 
the  supreme  good,  not  the  failure  of  thought  and  will 
in  our  undeveloped  nature  which  is  so  often  involved 
in  our  glimpses  of  Him.  Yet  some  mystics,  in  all 
ages,  have  mistaken  the  failure  of  thought  and  will,  in 
contemplation,  for  the  highest  good,  because  they  have 
confused  the  perfection  of  that  which  is  adorable 
with  the  imperfection  of  the  adoration.  They  have 
sought  to  return  again  and  again  to  the  beginning, 
mistaking  it  for  the  goal.  They  have  sought,  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously,  to   acquire   a   habit   of  this 

1  Cf.  Essay  II.  p.  38.  ^  Cf.  Essay  VIII.  pp.  329-330. 


IX         THE  UNDISCOVERED  COUNTRY     369 

fainting  of  reason  and  will  before  the  vision  of  God. 
They  have  sought  to  conceive  of  the  abeyance  of 
thought  and  will  as  eternal.  Strong  natures  who  have 
made  this  mistake  have  held  other  strong  beliefs  about 
God  which  are  not  compatible  with  it.  They  did  not 
see  the  incompatibility,  and  by  their  conscious  com- 
munion with  God  their  personalities  became  lusty,  their 
individuality  clearly  defined,  their  activities  widespread 
and  beneficent.  These  were  the  great  mystics,  and 
while  they  speak  of  the  immortal  life  in  phrases  which 
suggest  absorption  into  God,  they  do  not  teach  either 
the  future  annihilation  of  the  self  or  the  intolerable 
emptiness  of  an  existence  that  approaches  the  Nirvana 
of  the  Orientals.  But  to  weaker  natures  the  mistake 
of  believing  contemplation  which  has  no  intellectual 
content  ^  to  be  the  goal  of  the  religious  life,  is  fatal  ; 
and  under  the  delusion  we  see  men  and  women  whose 
wills  become  weaker,  whose  thoughts  become  more 
and  more  shallow,  whose  virtues  are  largely  negative, 
and  whose  prayers  seem  ineffectual.  Their  lives,  on 
the  whole — judged  by  any  liberal  standard  of  human 
responsibility  in  face  of  the  world's  need — are  less 
worthy  than  the  average  life  of  men  and  women  who 
have  declared  that  they  have  no  consciousness  of  such 
a  God  as  this  worship  indicates,  and  no  desire  to 
participate  in  the  worship. 

Again,  the  belief  that  we  at  our  highest  fall  back  into 
God,  as  a  planet  might  fall  back  into  the  sun  and 
become  indistinguishable  from  the  sun,  is  fostered  by 
our  natural  inability  to  reconcile  the  finite  and  infinite 
or  time  and  eternity.  We  cannot  think  of  God  as 
personal  and  as  infinite  at  the  same  time  ;  we  cannot 
think  of  Him  as  the  All,  embracing  both  good  and 
evil,  and  at  the  same  time  think  of  Him  as  the  Good. 
Argument  is  useless  here,  because  we  are  on  the  bed- 
rock of  things  that  underlie  all  argument.  By  sophisti- 
cation we  may  indeed  argue  any  of  our  natural  certainties 

'   Cf.  Essay  VIM.  pp.  331-332. 

2  B 


370  IMMORTALITY  ix 

out  of  consciousness,  but  they  come  back  to  us  when 
we  consult  truth  in  simplicity  and  silence.  Our  hearts 
tell  us  that  God  is  personal  ;  if  we  know  Him  we 
know  that  He  is  our  Friend  :  our  reason  tells  us  that 
God  is  infinite  :  our  own  power  to  will  tells  us  that 
God,  too,  makes  choice  between  good  and  evil — that 
He  chooses  good  and  not  evil.  All  these  truths  come 
to  us  as  the  voice  of  God  in  the  soul.  Dispute  them 
for  a  time  we  may,  but  they  return  upon  us  in  the  first 
uprush  from  the  depth  of  that  part  of  our  mind  lying 
below  consciousness.  Argue  as  we  will,  sophisticate 
ourselves  as  we  will,  degrade  ourselves  as  we  will, 
yet  in  the  first  quiet  hour  when  we  listen  to  the  voice 
of  truth  in  our  souls  we  know  that  evil  exists,  and  that 
God  is  good  and  not  evil.  Now,  because,  in  our 
immaturity,  we  cannot  reconcile  God's  personality  and 
goodness  with  His  infinitude,  it  is  pure  folly  to  think 
that  a  return  to  homogeneity — the  mere  disappearance 
of  the  particular,  the  individual,  the  personal — would 
vindicate  the  divine  infinitude  and  give  us  the  unity  we 
desire.  To  bring  the  finite  to  an  end  is  not  to  reconcile 
it  with  the  infinite,  any  more  than  setting  a  term  to 
time  can  reconcile  it  with  eternity.  For  we,  and  all 
things,  exist  in  God's  infinitude  now  ;  our  individuality 
battens  within  it ;  our  personality  grows  strong  because 
of  it  ;  and  we  know,  if  we  know  anything,  that  while 
the  more  we  approach  the  good  the  more  we  please 
God,  at  the  same  time  the  more  men  approach  the 
good  the  more  nobly  distinctive,  the  more  beautifully 
individual,  do  their  characters  become.  To  imagine, 
then,  that  at  the  end  of  this  life  we  shall  cease  to  exist 
as  conscious  beings,  that  our  characters,  our  personalities, 
will  fall  back  into  some  boundless  being,  instead  of 
becoming  more  and  more  definite,  more  and  more 
individual,  is  certainly  not  to  exalt  God  ;  for  it  is 
founded  on  the  belief,  either  that  God  is  now  belittled 
by  our  present  individuality,  or  that  our  present  in- 
dividuality is  a  mere  delusion.     In  the  latter  case  God, 


IX         THE  UNDISCOVERED  COUNTRY      371 

whom  we  find  in  the  depths  of  our  souls,  is  doubtless 
also  a  delusion,  for  if  the  self  is  not  real  it  is  no 
respectable  witness  on  whose  testimony  we  can  accept 
God.  Our  deepest  mature  conviction  is  that  finite  and 
infinite  interpenetrate,  as  time  and  eternity  interpene- 
trate, and  our  problems  must  be  solved  in  the  light 
of  that  conviction. 

Yet  our  minds  are  so  made  that  they  must  find 
unity.  The  question  we  are  discussing  is,  how  may 
we  realise  unity .''  The  highest  unity  of  which  experi- 
ence teaches  us  is  a  society  of  highly  developed  person- 
alities, clearly  defined  characters,  who  are  loyally  united 
to  one  another  in  love  and  in  purposeful  activity  for 
some  great  end.  That  was  our  Lord's  conception  of 
the  kingdom  of  God  :  that,  at  its  highest,  has  always 
been  the  ideal  of  Christians  for  the  Church. 

To  suppose  that  in  the  ultimate  heaven  a  higher 
unity  can  be  found  by  the  extinction  of  individuality 
and  personality,  venerable  as  the  speculation  is,  seems 
to  imply  the  confusion  of  thought  which  we  have  just 
been  seeking  to  analyse,  I  have  suggested  that  this 
idea  is  engendered  by  the  way  in  which  our  will  and 
reason  seem  to  faint  and  fail  in  contemplation  of  God's 
goodness  or  beauty,  and  is  fostered  by  our  partial  or 
abstract  ways  of  thought  which  create  the  problem  of 
the  finite  and  infinite.  We  know  certainly  that  unless 
in  this  life  our  nature  quickly  rights  itself  from  the 
failure  of  reason  and  will  in  adoration,  we  shall  fail 
to  live  nobly.  Experience,  too,  teaches  us  that,  as  we 
grow  in  understanding  of  and  likeness  to  (jod,  the 
attitude  of  worship  becomes  more  and  more  compatible 
with  clear  thought  and  strong  volition. 

The  better  thing,  then — in  sight  for  us  even  now — 
is  an  increased  vitality,  in  which  all  the  powers  of  our 
nature  can  work  together  in  perfect  and  restful  harmony, 
so  that  we  may  be  able,  while  we  adore  beauty,  to  grasp 
the  perfection  of  separate  beauties  ;  while  we  contemplate 
personality,  to  perceive  the  necessity  for  distinct  persons  ; 


372  IMMORTALITY  ix 

while  we  worship  truth,  to  be  able  to  rejoice  in  the 
recognition  of  separate  truths.  At  perfect  rest  in  the 
harmony  of  life,  we  ought  to  be  able  to  choose  with 
strong  will  between  the  better  and  the  worse — the  will 
strengthened,  not  weakened,  by  our  consciousness  of 
the  infinite  Good.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  simple  natures 
who  in  quiet  ways  move  on  instinctively  from  strength 
to  strength  of  love  and  activity  and  common  sense,  do 
attain  to  this  harmony  of  powers  "without  observation," 
and  find  no  difficulty  in  the  Christian  faith  of  personal 
immortality  and  an  endless,  conscious,  and  ever  ennobling 
fellowship  with  all  men  and  friendship  with  the  God 
in  whom  now  they  live  and  move  and  have  their  being. 

But  the  opposing  conception — that  the  energies  of 
the  self  must  pass  away  in  the  ecstasy  of  the  Divine 
Vision — has  had  a  far-reaching,  and  in  my  view  baneful, 
influence.  Largely  through  it  the  Christian  hope  of 
immortality  has  been  emptied  of  content.  It  is  not 
Christian  ;  it  came  into  the  Church  from  Oriental  and 
neo-Platonic  sources.  The  greatest  minds  of  the  Church 
have  never  proclaimed  it ;  but  it  has  been  held  by 
certain  sections  of  Christians  all  down  the  centuries, 
and  their  words  and  experiences  still  influence  many 
minds  both  Christian  and  non-Christian.  The  idea 
that  it  is  noble  to  give  up  "  individual  desire,"  to 
become  "  impersonal,"  to  cease  from  wanting  an  in- 
dividual immortality,  is  quite  common  now,  and  was 
originally  due  to  the  mystics  who  in  the  religious  life 
set  ecstasy  above  the  joy  of  friendship. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  accept  the  ideal  of  friend- 
ship as  the  perfect  unity  we  must  realise  that  it  implies 
distinction  of  selves.  Love  is  an  attribute  which  only 
exists  in  a  person  and  in  relation  to  other  persons. 
Love  always  desires  that  its  object  should  become 
more  of  a  person — more  individual,  of  stronger  and 
more  defined  character.  That,  indeed,  is  the  meaning 
of  the  parable  of  biological  evolution.  It  is  the  progress 
from  what  is  all  alike,  all  the  same,  all  one,  all  absorbed 


IX         THE  UNDISCOVERED  COUNTRY      373 

in  an  infinite  sameness  or  principle  of  being,  to  what  is 
definite,  the  most  distinctive  form  of  individuality — 
the  person,  compact  of  thought,  feeling,  and  volition, 
all  dominated  by  and  reflecting  the  personal  outlook. 
Can  God  love  an  amoeba  ?  Yet  a  thousand  times 
sooner  can  Love  greet  the  amoeba  for  the  promise  of 
individuality  it  enfolds  than  feel  attraction  for  the 
homogeneity  out  of  which  it  springs. 

Here  on  earth  the  human  soul  begins  by  being 
separated  from  all  else,  a  self ;  and  by  degrees  attains 
to  greater  and  greater  differentiation.  Can  we  believe 
that  in  another  life  its  progress  will  be  by  returning  to 
selflessness  .'* 

Again,  we  do  not  get  co-operation,  much  less  unity, 
by  selflessness  here.  The  men  whom  we  call  nonentities, 
the  women  whose  desires  and  wills  have  been  suppressed 
until  impulse  and  volition  have  atrophied — these  do 
not  long  hang  together  in  any  enterprise.  They  need 
to  be  driven  like  sheep,  and  then  their  movements  are 
never  harmonious  but  merely  similar.  Loyalty  to  the 
unity  of  any  friendship,  private  or  corporate,  requires 
strength  and  distinction  of  character. 

We  have,  then,  two  rays  of  light  illuminating  the 
highest  paradise  we  can  conceive.  They  are  like 
searchlights  from  the  lanterns  of  earthly  truth,  and  we 
see  their  long,  slender  pencils  traversing  the  unknown 
heaven.  The  one  afiirms  that  if  the  ultimate  unity  is 
the  perfect  friendship  of  all  living  selves  with  each 
other  and  with  God,  each  individual  soul  living  for 
this  high  destiny  must  become  ever  more  clearly  out- 
lined in  distinctive  personal  beauty.  The  other  affirms 
that  if  the  progress  of  the  soul  is  from  selflessness  to 
clearer  and  clearer  definition  of  personal  distinction, 
the  ultimate  unity  of  all  in  all  must  be  the  perfect 
friendship.     So  they  meet  in  the  zenith. 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


Adoration,  148, 150, 152  f.,  163,  328,  371 
Animals,  mental  activity  in,  60-63,  ^7 
moral  sense  in,  83 
survival  of,  5  f.,  83  f. 
Annihilation,  73,  8.}.,  87,  129,  171,  180, 

186,  187,  192-195,  200,  204,  208, 

212,  214  f.,  216,  311 
Apocalypse,  the,  13,  92,  158,  191  f.,  194, 

199 
Apocalyptic  literature.     See  Eschatology 

and  Future  Life 
Arianism,  147 

Athanasian  Creed,  13,  145,  202 
Automatic  writing,  108,  247,  250,  257- 

259,  272 

Bible,  The,  and  Hell,  Essay  V.  passim 
authority  of,  viii,  x,  147 
inspiration  of,  273  f.,  276 
Body — 

and  mind,  Essay  II. passim.      &e  Mind 

and  soul,  x,  106-108,  114,  126 

the  material,  92-95,  103-110,  113  f., 

115  f. 
Resurrection   of  the,  89,  91-96,  97. 

See  also  Resurrection 
the    spiritual,    70,   94,    96,    103-110, 
113  f.,  115  f.,  120,  126,  164 
Brahmanism,  304,  306,  314,  317,  323, 

337 
Buddhism,  295,  317,   318,   323,  325   f., 

333 

Christ  and  His  contemporaries,  89-91 
as  Friend,  165 

Crucifixion  of,  114,  157,  240 
Divinity  of,  145-148,  149,  164-166 
His  love  of  nature  and  animals,  i  59  f. 
His  revelation   of    God,  85-S7,    166, 

213  f.,   217,   277,   357  f.     See  also 

Divinity  of 
humour  of,  1 59  f. 
Resurrection  of.      See  Resurrection 
Second  Coming  of,  119,  izz 


Christ,  teaching  on    prayer,  331,  353, 

3S5.  357  (■ 
teaching  on   Future   Life  and   Resur- 
rection.     See  sub  verba 
Christianity,  false  presentation  of,   319, 

.341 
Christian  Science,  50-52,  325 
Church,  the — 

its  teaching  on  Hell,  202-209 

Mediaeval,  135,  205  f.,  291 

of  England,  207-209,  224 

primitive,  113,  115,  118,202-205 
Clairvoyance,    36,    266-269,    ^^Si    3^3> 

324 
Consciousness,  63-67 
Credulity,  sin  of,  279-284 

Dead,  burial  of  the,  1 1 1,  348 

communication  with  the.  Essay  VII. 
passim 

communion    with,   285-287,   291    f., 
360-363,  364-367 

interest    of,  in   this   earth,    109,    119, 
157,  360  f.,  364-367 

prayers  for  the,  289,  292,  362  f. 
Death — 

apparitions  at  time  of,  325 

hour  of,  1 10-1 12,  I  39 

moral  significance  of,  i  11 

not  the  end,  12  f.,  S8 

premature,  88 

repentance  at,  111,  112,  139,  216 

revealing  character,  1  2()  f. 

the  "  second,"  192 

the  sting  of,  ix,  345-349 
Demonology,  199,  281-284 
Dream-consciousness,   36,   38,  259-266, 

323.  327 

Emotionalism,  162  f. 
Kpiphenomenalism,  22 
Eschatology,    in    the    New    Testament, 
119,  172  f.,  185-202 
Jewish,  117  f.,  172,  173-185,  193 


375 


376 


IMMORTALITY 


Eschatology,    later    ecclesiastical,     113, 

202-209 
Eternity,  10,  153,  237 

Time  and,  143  f. 
Evil,  moral,  140,  236-238 

problem  of,  315 

Faith- 
confused  with  superstition,  13  f. 
in  future  life.     See  Future  Life,  belief 

in 
nature  of,  71 

tainted  with  egotism,  4  f.,  6-10 
Forgiveness,  140,  195,  216,  312  f.,  317 
Future  Life,  the — 

activity  of  intellect  in,  157  f. 

a  fuller  life,  93,  95,   148,  149,   152, 

158,  165,  223,  363 
Apocalyptic    conceptions    of,    91-93, 

113,  117-121,  122-124,  135)  I5^> 

171-173,   175,  176-183,    191-193, 

199  f. 
as  home,  74,  230 
as  social,  126  f.,  153  f.,  155  f.,  270, 

300,  362  f.,  367 
beauty  in,  158  f.,  231,  239,  270 
belief  in,  vii,  xiii,  xiv,  Essay  \.  passim, 

44,  71,  78  f.,  85,   170,  286,  346- 

352»  372 
causes    of   disbelief   in,   vii    f.,   3-10, 

"3.  135 
Christ's   teaching    on,  78  f.,  90,  93, 

107,    113,    122-125,    153    f.,    173, 

188-190,  195-198,  200  f. 
Church's  teaching  on,  202-209,  356  f. 
desire  after  belief  in,  ix,  7,  8,  350-352, 

367 
geocentric  conception  of,  136,  298 
Greek  philosophy  and,  5,  78,  94,  184, 

204 
Hindu  philosophy  and,  78,  295,  298, 

300,  304-307.     See  also  Reincarna- 
tion and  Karma 
humour  in,  159-161 
inter-communication  in,  109  f.,  127, 

137  f-,  363 
Jewish  beliefs  in,  91-93,  117  f.,  120. 

See  also  Eschatology 
love  in,  no,  155  f,,  225,  234,  235  f., 

372  f- 
need  of  new  and  definite  conceptions 

of,  vii-x,  134-136 
primitive  beliefs  in,  13  f.,  296  f. 
progress  in,   127-129,   138,   139-143, 

209,  211,  216  f.,  226,  228,  232- 

235.  299  f.,  352 
rewards    and   punishments   in,    5,  8, 

173  f.  See a/jo  Hell  a«(i  Punishment 


Future  Life — 

time  and  space  in,  96-103,  136,  138, 

vision  of  God  in,  164,209,  211,  239, 

352,  372 
work  in,  138,  156  f.,  225 

Gehenna,  175,  188,  195  f. 

Ghosts,    13   if.,    91,    278,    279,   286  f., 
362 

Gnosticism,  95,  114 

God- 
as  Absolute,  146 
as  Artist,  80,  81,  87 
as  Creator,  80,  87,  100  f.,  156,  270 
as   Father,    80,    85,   147,    213,    228, 

277 
as  immanent,  150,  274 
as  Infinite,  73,  79,  99,  164,  341,  367- 

371 
as  love,  8,  73,  87,  94,  100,  155,  170, 

172,  182,  213  f.,  216  f.,  227,  239, 

270,  287,  341,  355 
as  omnipotent,  8  f.,  339,  341,  354 
as  Parent,  80,  81,  87 
as  personal,  79  f.,   150,  164  f.,  337- 

339:  368-371 

Christian  conception  of,  80,  85-87, 
94,96,  145-148,  152,  164  f.,  213  f., 
217,  227  f.,  276  f.,  296,  336,  341, 
372 

communion  with,  99,  197,  214,  285, 

330,  364,  369 
inadequate   conceptions   of,  6,  7,  86, 

146  f.,  151  f.,  282,  330,  333 
justice  of,  8,  111,  139 
knowledge  of,  149  f.,  162,  166,  337^, 

339,  352,  355 
presence  of,  154,  162,  164 
sufl^ering  of,  148,  317 
vision    of,    152,    158,    161-165,  209, 

2",  239,  352,  367  369,  372 
wrath   of,  9,    174,    186,   238   f.     See 

also  Hell  and  Punishment 

Hades,  91,  94,  118,  184 
Heaven,  a  dream  of,  Essay  VL  passim 
and  perfection,  119,  142-144 
as  quality  of  life,  137  f.,  149 
localised,  5,  14,  134,  136-139 
pain  in,  239  f. 
symbols  of,  134  f.,  148,  153,  221-226, 

236 
traditional     conceptions    of,     134   f., 

136-139,  148,  152,  158,  224  f. 

vision  of  God  in,  164,  209,  211,  239, 

352,  372.     See  a/io  Future  Life 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


377 


Hell,  doctrine  of,  9,  135,  170,  171,201, 
202-217 
existence  of,  141 
fear  of,  9,  112,  215 
fire  of,    178,    180,    187,    188,    191    f., 

194,  195  f.,  204  f. 
rejection  of  belief  in,  9  f.,  170,  209, 

212-217 
Roman  Catholic  teaching  on,  1 1 1 
The  Bible  and.  Essay  V.  passim 
traditional  conceptions  of,  9,   134   f., 
137  f.,  236  f.,  238,  307 
Higher  Criticism,  viii,  147,  171 
Holy  Spirit,    194,   277,   313,  329,  351, 

358  f. 
Hypnotism,  2i,  28-40,  249,  261  f.,  2S5, 
322-328,  332 
and  suggestion,  32-35,   51,  249 
dangers  of,  39  f. 

Immortality — 

conditional,  83,  204,  217 

personal.     See  Personality 

proof  of,  78-89,    145,   296.     See  also 
Heaven  and  Resurrection 
Incarnation,  the  doctrine  of,   147,  154, 

164.     See  also  Christ,  Divinity  of 
Individual.     See  Personality 
Inspiration,  verbal,  271-278 
Intuition,  73,  79,  100,  328 

Jahweh,  174,  333 

Joy,  in  Heaven,  224  f.,  237 

of  forgiveness,  312  f.,  317 

of  God,  230 

value  of,  141,  161,  314 
Judgment,  xiii,  210  f. 

Day  of,  89,  91  f.,  117,  121-129,  180, 
186,  188,  197  f.,  207 

in  Fourth  Gospel,  125 

Particular,  121  n. 
Justice,  15,  III,  139,  213  f. 

Divine,  the,  8,  m,  139 

false  conceptions  of,   308,    312,   314- 
317 

Karma,  295,  302-317,  321,  336,  341 
Kingdom  of  God — 

Christian  hope  of,  119,  155,  166 
Christ's  teaching  on,   153  f.,   187   f., 

371 
Jev/ish   view    of,   91,  92,    117,    120, 
186  f. 

Life,  as  preparation,  88,  150 

Eternal,  95,  136,  148-154,  162,  166 
sacrifice  of,  85,  87 


Life,  struggle  for,  9,  87,  221-223,  225, 
227 
theories  of,  10  f.,  86  f. 

Magic,  275,  282-284 

Matter — 

as  evil,  95,  361 

nature   of,    10,   70,   95,    103   f.,    106, 
108 

Mediumistic   experience,   37,    108,   245- 
247,  248-253,  254-278,  324,  328 

Metempsychosis,  296,  317 

Mind — 

and  Brain,  ix,  Essay  II.  passim 
and  Disease,  26  f.,  40-52,  325 
and  the  emotions,  58-60 
and  Will,  63,  67-69 
cosmic,  the,  23,  61,  72 
development  of,  22,  56-70,  274 
independence  of  body,  21,  24,  56,  70, 

72,  246,  284  f. 
interaction  of  body  and,  22-56 
survival  of,  x,  21-25,  70"74>  ^^S 

Mystic    experience,    36,   99,    151,    163, 
276,  328,  367-369 

Myth,  221,  223  f. 

Neurasthenia,  40-46 
New  Jerusalem,  13,  155 
Nirvana,  95,  369 

Occultism,  319-322 

Paradise,  118,  221 
Personality — 

absorption    of,   in    the   Divine,   84   f., 

100,  102,  369,  370-373 
extinction  of.      See  Annihilation 
growth  of,  12,   72    f.,    127-129,   138, 
>39-'43.  '55  f-  2i8,  231-235,  274, 

373  ....  „      o     , 

survival    of,   viii,  xiii,   73,   81,  84  f., 
87-89,  94   f.,    100,    102,   117,   119, 
145,  156,  225  f.,  297,  372  f. 
Thcosophicnl  conception  of,  336  f. 
value   of,  8,  72,  79-81,  84,  214,  217, 

337-34'.  372-373 
Prayer,    38,   289,    292,    328-331.    341, 

352-356,  358.  362  f- 
Book  of  Common,  1 1 1,  348 
Psychical  Research,   x,   54  f.,   244-247, 
279,  283,  351 
Society    of,    S4    U   245-247,   256    f., 
259,  266-268,  271,  284,  187,  314  f. 
Psychotherapy,  21,  40-52,  325 
and  Christian  Science,  50-52 


378 


IMMORTALITY 


Punishment,  idea  of,  9,  170,  213-215, 

■   238,  275,  308-317 
Punishment,  Future,  8  f.,  128,  Essay  V. 
passim 
as  everlasting,    171   f.,  179-183,  185, 

188,  192-198,  200,  202,  209 
in  Church  teaching,  202-209 
in    New    Testament,    170-173,    179, 

185-202,  203,  209-217 
in  Old  Testament,  172,  173-175 
in  teaching  of  Christ,    173,   188-190, 
192-201 
Purgatory,    128,     134,    137-140,    216, 
234,  236  f.,  238 
Roman    Catholic    teaching    on,    139, 
207,  i.16,  292,  307  f. 

Reality,  nature  of,  10,  12,  87,  230  f. 
Reincarnation,     xiii,     295-302,      303, 

321,  336,  339 
Repentance,  140,  312  f. 

after  death,   127-129,   141,    181,  183, 

187,  202,  204,  216 
deathbed,  iii,  112,  139,  216 
Resurrection — 

Apocalyptic    expectations    of,    91-93, 

113,  H7-121,  122-124,  175 
Christ's    teaching    on,    93,    95,    107, 

116,  118,  122  f, 
development  of  idea  of,  91-96 
general,  117,  12 1 
interval  between  death  and,  1 17-121, 

125 
in  Old  Testament,  14,  91,  175 
New  Testament  teaching  on,  92-95, 

104-106,  113-121,  186 
of  Christ,  5,  114-116,  118,  359  f.,  364 
of  the  Dead,  Essay  III.  passim,   357, 

359 
physical,  5,  14,  89,  91-96,  115,  117 
St.   Paul    on,  93,  95,    104-106,   113, 

114-116,  119,  186,  345,  348 
Rigveda,  304 

Sadducees,  92,  94,  118,  177 

Saints,  canonisation  of,  151,  152,  361 

Communion    of.    The,    155,    291    f., 
3597  362 

conventional,  235 


Saints,  Invocation  of,  359,  361 
Shell-shock,  39,  46-50 
Sheol,  91,  92,  94,  ii8,  119,  173     ' 
Soul,  and  body,  72,  io6-io8,  114,  126 

destiny  of,  73,  139,  211  f.,  285,  297 

of  animals,  5  f.,  83 

of  species,  82 

pre-existence  of.      See  Reincarnation 

World-,  73 
Spiritualism,     viii,     xiii,     53-55,    Essay 
VII.  passim,  324  f.,  365 

as  a  religion,  245,  291 

gains  of,  284-292 

objections  to,  253-278 
Suffering,  and  sin,  213  f.,  307-317,  341 

of  God,  148 

penal,  139.     See  Punishment 

profitless,  128  f.,  139,  170,  213 

redemptive,  129,  140  f.,  214,  309  f. 
Suggestion,  auto-,  35-40,  318,  327 

mental,  40,  42-44,  47,  51  f. 

under  hypnosis,  32-35,  51,  249 
Superstition,   13,   iii,    244,    246,    281- 

284,  287,  291  f. 

Table-turning,  289-291,  292 
Telepathy,    21,   53-56,   110,  246,    247- 
253>    2S4-257>    272    f.,  278,   280, 

285,  287  f.,  292,  323,  324  f.,  363 
Theology,  need  of  a  living,  ix,  352,  356- 

364 
Theosophy,  xiii.  Essay  VIII.  passim 
Trance-practice,   35-40,  249  f.,  261   f., 

322-333 
and  devotion,  328-331 

Universalism,  171,  201,  202,  207,  208 
Upanishads,  295,  306 

Valhalla,  221 

Values,  absolute,  4-6,  87,  94,  96,  151, 
162,  235  f. 
Christ's  scheme  of,  82,  149,  162 
conservation  of,  81,  96,  107 

Witchcraft,  282-284 

Worship,  163  f.,  223  f.,  328-331,  371 

Zoroastrianism,  78,  183-1S5 


INDEX    OF    NAMES 


Apelles,  165 

Aquinas,  St.  Thomas,  loo,  158,  282,  357 

Aristotle,  275 

Armstrong- Jones,  Sir  R.,  54 

Arnold,  Matthew,  217 

Athanasius,  St.,  146  f. 

Augustine,  St.,  158,  197,  205,  217,  275 

Backman,  Dr.  A.,  268 

Balfour,  Mr.  Gerald,  266  f. 

Barnes,  Dr.,  281-284 

Barrett,  Sir  William,  On  the  Threshold  of 

the  Unseen,  270 
Besant,  Mrs.,  320-322,  332,  333  f.,  336 
Bigg,   Christian  Platonists  of  Alexandria, 

202,  204 
Bonaventura,  St.,  loo,  151 
Bou^set,  Kyrios  CAristos,  202 
Braid,  32 
Browning,  Apparitions,  362 

Saul,  277 
Bryce,  Holy  Roman  Empire,  206 
Butcher,  Prof.  S.  H.,  266 

Calvin,  282 

Campion,  221 

Celano,  ii;i 

Charles,   Dr.,  201,  Befween  the  Old  and 

New  Testaments,  176,  217 
Concerning  Prayer,  81,  122,  129,  341,  362 
Correggio,  159 
Cudworth,     Intellectual    System    of    the 

Universe,  335 
Cuthbcrt,  Father,  151 

Dante,  184,  202,  206,  221 

Darwin,  Expression  of  the  Emotions,  59 

Davids,  Mrs.  Rhys,  Buddhism,  326 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  213 
Essays  and  Re-vteivs,  207 

Farnell,  Dr.,  184 

Farquhar,    Dr.    J.    N.,    The    Cro^vn    of 
Hinduism,  306  f.,  332 


Farrar,  Eternal  Hope,  207,  208,  213 
Fosdick,    The   Manhood  of  the    Master, 

276  f. 
Fra  Angelico,  224 
Francis,  St.,  of  Assisi,  6,  i  5  i 
Freud,  43 

Gibson,  Dr.,  The  Thirty-nine  Articles,  202 
Gladstone,  Jwventus  Mundi,  335 
Glover,   T.    R.,    The   Jesus   of  History, 

159 
Gore,   Dr.,   The    Religion  of  the  Church, 

202,  208  f.,  214 

Guthrie,  Dr.  Leonard,  54 

Halifax,  Lord,  283  f. 
Hamilton,  Sir  William,  279 
Har  Dayal,  Prof.,  332 
Harnack,  Sayings  of  Jesus,  195 
Harrison,    Miss,    Prolegomena    to    Greek 

Religion,  184 
Hegel,  350 

Hill,  Mr.  J.  A.,  251-253 
Hobbcs,  207 
HOft'ding,  81 
Homer,  14 
Hilgel,   Fr.    von,    The   Mystical  Element 

in  Religion,  1  3  9 
Huxley,  22,  41 

Ibsen,  Peer  Gynt,  72 
Ignatius,  St.,  202 

Jacks,  Dr.  L.  P.,  Mad  Shepherds,  332 
James,  Henry,  225  f.,  228 
James,  William,  Psycholop;  58-60 
Jastrow,  Religious  Bdiifin  Bahy Ionia  and 
Assyria,  175 

Job,  4,  173  '"•'.-\°^ 

Jones,  Dr.  Griffith-,  364 

Jones,  Dr.  Rufus,  276 

Judge,     William    Q.,     An    Epitome     of 

Th,osof>hy,  319  f. 
Jung.  43 


379 


38o 


IMMORTALITY 


Kant,  98,  100  f, 
Kennett,  Prof.,  340 

Lecky,  History  of  Rationalism  in  Europe, 

28z,  283 
Leonard,  Mrs.,  263,  269 
Liddon,  191 
Locke,  207 
Lodge,  Sir  Oliver,  277 

Raymond,   253,  2-57,  262-265,   268   f., 

272  f.,  283,  290  f. 
Longfellow,  Resignation,  348 
Luther,  282 

Macaulay,  ix 

McDougall,  Dr.  W.,  25,  34,  68 
McTaggart,  Dr.,  Human  Immortality  and 
Pre-existence,  295  f. 
Studies  in  Hegelian  Cosmology,  350 
Maurice,  F.  D.,  208 
Mill,  J.  S.,  207 
Milton,  224,  236 
Moffatt,  Dr.  J.,  Ne-w  Translation  ofN.T., 

357,  35*^ 
Moore,  G.,  The  Brook  Kerith,  198 
Morris,  William,  222 
Moulton,  Early  Zoroastrianism,  184 
Myers,  Frederick,  55 
Human  Personality,  268 

Nietzsche,  5 

Origen,  197,  202,  205,  2H,  217 
Oxford  Studies   in    the  Synoptic  Problem, 
123,  124,  195 

Paul,  St.,  ix,  14,  66,  89,  93-95,  104- 
106,  108,  no,  113,  114-116,  119, 
147,  155,  157,  162,  182,  186,  201, 

331,  345,  348 
Philo,  335 

Piper,  Mrs.,  55,  255  f. 
Plato,  5,  78,  184,  204,  221,  295 
Plotinus,  151 
Podmore,  F.,  56 
Poussin,    Prof,    de    la    Valine,    Way    of 

Nir-vana,  297,  304-306,  323  f. 


Praxiteles,  159 

Pusey,  202,  204,  208,  210,  216 

Rashdall,  Dr.  H.,  Conscience  and  Christ, 

200 
Rembrandt,  159 
Rodin,  159 
Roosevelt,  232 
Rossetti,  D.  G.,  The  House  of  Life,  iii 

Schafer,  Prof.,  62 
Shakespeare,  22,  1 10,  232,  346  f. 
Sidgwick,  Mrs.,  55,  255  f.,  268 
Smith,  John,  213 
Socrates,  275 

Spenser,  Faerie  Siueene,  in 
Spinoza,  207 
Steele,  The  Tatler,  347 
Suarez,  139,  307 

Swete,  The  Gospel  according  to  St.  Mark, 
196 

Tennyson,  275 

In  Memoriam,  348,  350 

To  Rev.  F.  D.  Maurice,  208 
TertuUian,  204 
Tyrrell,  George,  Autobiography  of,  Zi^ 

Verrall,  Dr.  A.  W.,  266-268 
Verrall,  Mrs.,  267  f. 

Ward,  Dr.  J.,  Pluralism  and  Theism,  299 
Watson,  William,  The  Great  Mtsgi-ving, 

ix 
Webb,    Mr.    C.    C.    J.,    The   Notion    of 

Re'velation,  334-336 
Wells,  H.   G.,   God  the  Invisible  King, 

84  f.,  338  f. 
Wilkinson,  Mr.  A.,  251-253 
Willett,  Mrs.,  266-268 
Wordsworth,  Ecclesiastical  Sonnets,  vii 
Ode  to  Immortality,  350 
Tin  tern  Abbey,  23 
Workman,  H.   B.,   Christian   Thought  to 

the  Reformation,  205 

Zoroaster,  78,  184 


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The  Rev.  A.  E.  J.  RAWLINSON. 

THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  AUTHORITY. 

The  Rev.  N.  S.  TALBOT. 

THE   MODERN  SITUATION. 

The  Rev.  W.  TEMPLE. 

THE  DIVINITY   OF  CHRIST. 
THE  CHURCH. 

TIMES. — "  It  is  the  endeavour  to  put  into  fairly  popular  language  the  .  .  . 
position  of  the  young  men  who  seem  to  claim  that  they  can  speak  on  behalf  of 
their  generation.  They  have  gone  further  than  their  Victorian  predecessors. 
They  believe  that  they  have  gone  deeper  down  to  the  'Foundations.'  It  is  an 
unmixed  gain  that  we  should  have  their  statements  presented  to  us  in  a  form  so 
free  from  the  jargon  of  party  and  from  the  distressing  discord  of  controversy." 

HinBERT  JOURNAL.  — "  It  may  be  that  this  book  will  constitute  a  turn- 
ing-point in  the  history,  not  of  a  party,  but  of  the  Chiu"ch  of  England  and  of  the 
Church  in  England. " 

LONDON  :  MACMILLAN  AND  CO.,  Ltd. 

2 


BY    CANON    STREETER 
RESTATEMENT    AND     REUNION.      A 

Study  in  P"irst  Principles.     Crown  8vo.      2S.  6d.  net. 

CHURCH  QUARTERLY  RE V/EW.— "This  is  an  admirable  lxx)k— 
admirable  alike  in  its  sincerity,  its  faith  and  its  all-embracing  charity.  We 
may  doubt  whether  Mr.  Streeter's  position  is  tenable  in  the  Church  of  England, 
but  even  those  of  us  who  most  disagree  with  him  will  wish  that  it  might  Ix;  so. 
...  Of  Mr.  Streeter's  second  and  third  chapters  it  is  difficult  to  speak  with 
too  much  praise.  We  hardly  know  whether  more  to  admire  the  wisdom  and 
truth  of  what  he  says,  or  the  sympathy  and  understanding  with  which  he 
speaks  of  those  with  whom  he  disagrees." 


By  the  Author  of 
'  Pro  Christo  et  Ecclesia.' 

(LILY  DOUGALL) 

PRO    CHRISTO    ET    ECCLESIA.     Crown 

8vo.     5s.  6d.  net.     Globe  8vo.      is.  6d.  net. 

BOOKMAN.—^'  .  .  .  ^nch  !i  gem  \s  Pro  Christo  et  Ealesia.  .  .  .  It  will 
permanently  influence  the  mind  of  the  reader,  and  will  implant  higher  thoughts 
of  the  meaning  of  Christianity,  and  of  the  attitude  of  the  religious  towards  it." 

CHRISTUS     FUTURUS.         Crown     8vo. 

4s.  6d.  net. 

TIMES. — "  A  laborious  and  fascinating  discussion  on  many  things — prayer, 
the  ascetic  life,  inspiration,  demonology,  war,  and  the  like.  Its  effect  is  not 
only  to  stimulate  thought  but  to  excite  obedience  and  to  spread  sincerity." 

ABSENTE  REO.     Crown  8vo.     6s.  6d.  net. 

RECORD. — "  This  is  a  book  to  be  read  and  pondered  over.  .  .  .  Ever)' page 
has  a  thought-arresting  sentence,  and  its  spirit  is  as  excellent  as  its  style  is  lucid. " 

VOLUNTAS  DEI.     Crown  8vo.     6s.  6d.  net. 

SPECTATOR. — "It  is  our  author's  pleasure  to  set  us  thinking  and  to 
leave  us  thinking." 

THE     PRACTICE     OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

Crown  Svo.     5s.  6d.  net. 

A  THENyEUM.  — "  It  is  a  well -considered  examination  of  Christ's  teaching, 
not  as  it  appears  in  ecclesiastical  confessions,   but  as  it  bears  upon  social 

problems  ;  and  it  is  at  once  a  criticism  and  a  challenge." 

THE     CHRISTIAN     DOCTRINE     OF 

HEALTH.      A    Handbook    on    the    Relation  of  Bodily 
lieallh  to  Spiritual  and  Moral  Health.     Crown  Svo.     2s.  net. 

LONDON  :  MACMILLAN  AND  CO.,   Ltd. 


SOME    NEW    BOOKS 
ESSAYS    ON  THE   EARLY  HISTORY  OF  THE 

CHURCH    AND    MINISTRY.       By    Various    Writers. 
Edited  by  H.  B.  Swete,  D.D.      8vo. 

CONTENTS : 

Prefatory  Note.  By  the  late  Henry  Barclay  Swete,  D.D.  I.  Conceptions 
of  the  Church  in  Early  Times.  By  Canon  Arthur  James  Mason,  D.D.  II.  The 
Christian  Ministry  in  the  Apostolic  and  Sub-Apostolic  Periods.  By  Dean  Joseph 
Armitage  Robinson,  D.D.  III.  The  Apostolical  Succession.  By  Cuthbert 
Hamilton  Turner,  M.A.,  F.B.A.  IV.  The  Cyprianic  Conception  of  the 
Ministry.  By  Archbishop  J.  H.  BERNARD,  D.D.  V.  Early  Forms  of  Ordination. 
By  Walter  Howard  Frere,  D.D.  VI.  Sacraments  and  Terms  of  Communion. 
By  Prebendary  Frank  Edward  Brightman,  M.A. 

THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  FURNACE.  Essays  by 
Seventeen  Church  of  England  Chaplains  on  Active  Service  in 
France  and  Flanders.  Edited  by  F.  J3.  Macnutt,  Senior  Chap- 
lain to  the  Forces,  Canon  of  Southwark.     Cr.  8vo.      5s.  net. 

LIST  OF  CONTRIBUTORS.— Bishop  Llewellyn  H.  Gwynne,  C.M.G., 
D.D.;  Canon  F.  B.  Macnutt,  M.A.;  Rev.  F.  R.  Barry,  D.S.O.,  M.A. ;  Rev. 
F.  W.  Worsley,  B.D.;  Canon  M.  Linton  Smith,  D.S.O.,  D.D.;  Rev.  Bernard 
W.  Keymer,  M.A. ;  Rev,  Geoffrey  Gordon,  M.A. ;  Rev.  E.  Milner- White,  M.A. ; 
Canon  C.  Salisbury  Woodward,  M.C.,  M.A. ;  Rev.  Marcell  W.  T.  Conran,  M.C., 
M.A. ;  Rev.  Neville  S.  Talbot,  M.C.,  M.A.;  Rev.  T.  W.  Pyne,  D.S.O.,  M.A.; 
Archdeacon  H.  K.  Southwell,  C.M.G.,  M.A. ;  Canon  J.  O.  Hannay,  M.A. 
("George  O.  Birmingham");  Rev.  P.  C.  T.  Crick,  M.A. ;  Rev.  J.  S.  Kennedy, 
M.A.;  Rev.  Kenneth  E.  Kirk,  M.A.;   Rev.  Edward  S.  Woods,  M.A. 

PRIEST  OF  THE  IDEAL.  By  Stephen  Graham,  author  of 
"  With  the  Russian  Pilgrims  to  Jerusalem,"  etc.  8vo.  7s.  6d.  net. 
Priest  of  the  Ideal  is  written  in  the  form  of  a  novel  with  emblems.  An  American 
comes  to  Great  Britain  with  the  idea  of  purchasing  spiritual  treasure  for  America, 
any  castles,  churches,  old  manuscripts,  illuminated  gospels,  pictures,  memorials — 
anything  we  feel  we  have  outlived.  He  is  in  a  position  to  offer  any  money  for 
such  things,  and  he  visits  the  sacred  and  national  spots  of  Britain  :  Stonehenge, 
Glastonbury,  lona,  Lindisfarne,  Durham,  York,  Lincoln,  Stratford-on-Avon,  etc., 
questioning  as  he  goes  and  making  notes.  An  English  idealist  shows  him  round, 
and  this  idealist  is  the  "  Priest  of  the  Ideal  "  who  gives  the  book  its  title.  This 
affords  the  author  a  great  opportunity  for  examining  our  national  spiritual  inherit- 
ance and  discussing  what  belongs  to  the  dead  past  and  what  is  really  our  ' '  im- 
perishable substance"  as  a  nation.  A  great  deal  of  the  book  is  descriptive  and 
humorous,  there  are  satirical  and  also  poetic  pages,  some  lively  impressionism, 
and  a  love  story  which  runs  through  all. 

CHRISTIANITY  IN  HI^ORY:  a  Study  of  Re- 
ligious Development.  By  j.  Vernon  Bartlet,  M.A.,  D.D., 
Professor  of  Church  History,  Mansfield  College,  Oxford,  and 
A.  J.  Carlyle,  M.A.,  D.Litt.,  Fellow  and  Lecturer,  University 
College,  Oxford.     8vo. 

SERMONS     PREACHED     IN    WESTMINSTER 

ABBEY.     By  R.  H.  Charles,  D.D.,  Canon  of  Westminster. 
Cr.  8vo.      5s.  net. 

LONDON:  MACMILLAN  AND  CO.,  Ltd. 

4 


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